Making Money With Google | What Google's $12.5B Motorola Buy Means To You

The tech world is all abuzz about Google's biggest deal ever, buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. That puts Google in control of Motorola's popular Android phones, jacking up the competition with Apple's iPhone.

So what does it all mean for you?

"Early Show" technology expert Katie Linendoll said the tech giant now appears to be making an aggressive push into the hardware world.

She said, "Picking up Motorola, they're not just picking up phone handsets. They're also picking up tablets. They're picking up cable boxes. And one thing I find very interesting is, they're also picking up nearly 24,000 patents. Sounds boring. But for a company like Google, in this tech world where everybody is suing everybody, that can be very powerful in terms of legality."

As for the acquisition itself, it's adding to an already immense conglomerate.

"Google is one of the most powerful and influential companies," she said. "But also, acquisitions of this nature for Google are not unheard of. We've seen them in the past, and a lot of their deals that you probably heard of, YouTube, AdMob and also Android, they have put a lot of money out there. This is their largest acquisition to date by four times."

For consumers, Linendoll said the Motorola acquisition will create "healthy competition" to lure buyers.

"I think we're going to obviously see a lot of Motorola Google devices and it's going to drive better handsets in the marketplace," she said. "What's really powerful as a consumer is, we walk into the store and there's this barrage and influx of devices, so many to choose from. But ultimately, there are two platforms that are running the show: You're an Apple user or you're a Google user. We can talk about RIM, BlackBerry and Windows. But ultimately, at the end of the day, right now, what kind of user are you?"

If you're an Android user, this acquisition could mean more power for you, according to Linendoll.

She explained, "Android and Google go hand-in-hand. That is their open platform for running. Think about when you run Windows on a computer: That's the operating system that's powering your computer. So to actually move into a space now, if they can find a way, with Motorola, to combine software and hardware, and powerfully and seamlessly integrate it, that's powerful and gives them a lot of control."

Linendoll added, "There's 22 different devices that are currently powering off of Android. Where this becomes interesting is, they're not the only manufacturing working off Android. Samsung, HTC, if you're going to tell me they didn't perk up yesterday and say, 'This is kind of a surprise, I didn't know Google was going to enter into this world.' I don't think they're going to stop manufacturing devices with Android. However, a lot of us were surprised by the acquisition."