Google's going all Industrial Design on us.

It's starting to make sense now.  According to Core77, Google has just purchased the industrial design firm Mike and Maaike -- designers of the first Android prototype and the follow-up device, the first commercially available Android, the G1.

On the heels of closing the Motorola deal and displacing Sanjay Jha with Dennis Woodside, I'm sure some will question whether this portends poorly for an open Android platform or whether this signals Google's intention to compete directly with its Open Handset Alliance partners.

I see it slightly different.  I see Google's actions motivated by two desires:

1. Buying up an ID firm gives them the ability to test out ideas much faster than communicating externally with its manufacturing partners.  An in-house ID firm also gives them a stronger ability to communicate exactly what they expect from their manufacturing partners.
2. Google wants to expand beyond Android in the consumer electronics market.  Project Glass and Google Driverless Car are two examples.  Having an internal ID capability boosts their ability to expand rapidly, even if they outsource manufacturing to partner firms such as Samsung, HTC, etc.

This is really exciting news -- I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this purchase!