Well put, Moto both earned and lost the ability to do battle in this arena. The big cell phone providers of the early 00's were caught sleeping by the iPhone and now have to play catch up. A well played move by Apple, and now Google.
And it's a shame, too. I know a lot of Motorolans, and they're depressed at how a company that makes great hardware (I'm talking the RF stuff inside) missed the boat on software and design.
But Moto needs Google more than Google needs Motorola. And that's why they can pull a move like this and nobody can say boo.
