The first thing you should probably know about Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. is that this is about more than just the patents. But the patents are a huge part. Google's $12.5 billion purchase of the handset making arm of Motorola will give Google a lot more than just handsets, too. Motorola Mobility Holdings also makes headsets, DVRs, and tablets. Of course, the company also has enough mobile handset patents to keep Google safe from the rampaging hoards of angry competitors.

But, again, this isn't just about patents. Obviously, most of the money in this deal is there to secure the patent portfolio, but the other items in Motorola's pool of products are what interest me about this deal. Google had to buy a herd of patents, of course. But remember Google TV? Now Google has a manufacturer that won't run away and hide at the thought of striking a deal with Google over the automatic TV recording devices.

Additionally, Google now has a tablet maker in its stable. While that didn't really matter much a few months ago, considering a German court imposed an injunction against Samsung to keep it from selling its Galaxy Tablets in a large swath of Europe, this is just what the doctor ordered. You see, the Xoom tablet from Motorola was rumored to be the next target sued by Apple in that same court. With Google combining its patents with Motorola's, and bringing to bear its lawyers on the case, a further injunction may be unlikely.

But, again, my interest in this whole deal is far more focused on the cable box business Google is getting out of the deal. That's the sneaky backdoor portion of the sale. As I already said, Google is still brewing Google TV, which is a bit like Tivo on steroids. But the cable box makers have been terrified of Google's influence here, as recording shows on demand essentially eliminates any desire the advertisers have to purchase ads on said shows. Making DVR's easier to use just compounds the problem. And so, the companies Google has been trying to woo into including Google TV in their set top boxes have all but walked away from negotiations, since the cable companies are also disinterested in selling Google TV.

Now, that's not a problem anymore.I'm also interested to see what Google does with the Motorola enterprise video set top box business. That could yield some incredibly interesting results if handled right and combined with Google's aggressive push into Web video standards. All in all, this is one of those rare acquisitions where there's 0 overlap, and where the potential combination offers some seriously intriguing possibilities. One thing is for sure, the smart phone wars are just going to continue to get more and more interesting with each passing day.