Google Says Competitors are Jealous of Android?s Success

Google didn't mince words in a recent blog post accusing its competitors in the smartphone industry of teaming up against it.

The company's chief legal officer David Drummond said Android's success has forced Apple and Microsoft to team up against Google. He said this was the case when the two companies as well as other partners like Oracle got in bed together and acquired a multitude of technology patents from Novell and Nortell. He said they have done this to make sure Google didn't get them.

"I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on," Drummond said. "Android is on fire. More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers."

He said Android's success has yielded a competitive environment, which has led to great devices for the consumer. But that isn't all the success has brought he said.

"Android's success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents."

This move, he says, is to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android. He says a smartphone could include 250,000 patent claims, which could then be taxed. This would drive up the price on Android. He said this strategy also drives up the price of the patents.

"The winning $4.5 billion for Nortel's patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion," Drummond said.

The company said they are looking at ways to combat this move by Apple and Microsoft. He said the Department of Justice has forced the group to license the Nortel patents on fair terms. He also said the DOJ is looking to see if Apple and Microsoft acquired the patents for anti-competitive means.

He also mentioned the company's own efforts to acquire patents. Recently, Google acquired 1,000 or so patents from IBM.

Microsoft through way of Twitter responded to Google. The company's Vice President of Corporate Communications for Microsoft, Frank Shaw tweeted an email from Google's Kent Walker to Microsoft's Brad Smith which indicated Microsoft offered Google a chance to bid with the group and Google didn't want to join.