Rumour: Huawei to buy Motorola?

When Google bought the handset business of Motorola last year it raised a few eyebrows. Why on earth did Google want to move into the hardware business, especially with a struggling firm like Motorola? Was it just possible that Google was really interested in Motorola's massive patent library rather than the handsets?

Well, there are some rumours doing the rounds that Google was doing exactly that - and that after stripping Motorola of its patents, the hardware business is back for sale. And one of the interested parties is reported to be Huawei of China.

Now, Huawei are definitely a company to watch. They certainly have the R&D expertise to meld well with Motorola, and Motorola is still a well recognised name worldwide. So, there's a certain logic to this deal.

But there will be many people who won't be happy with a Chinese takeover of an American icon, especially given some recent controversies with Huawei's involvement in Iran. Huawei have also been recently blocked from bids due to national security issues in Australia and there are many other concerns about this firm too.

It is probably inevitable that the Motorola handset business will be sold on. The question is.. to whom? We think that a sale to Huawei would meet stiff resistance.

But perhaps a sale to a firm like LG may give both firms a boost. LG Motorola? It's a lot less strange than Google buying Motorola in the first place!

Video: Huawei Ascend P1 and P1 S

Huawei seem to be trying to follow in the footsteps of HTC, a brand that was pretty unknown until a few years ago even though HTC handsets were commonly sold under carrier names.

The ultra-slim Huawei Ascent P1 S and the still impressively slim Huawei Ascend P1 look like they might put Huawei on the map in the same way. These two Android 4.0 devices are really impressive when it comes to technical specifications, and they look OK as well. Are they good enough to tempt customers from Samsung and HTC though?