"This isn't going to be a protective shield for Android," Mueller said. "Motorola Mobility has already fired its best shots in its lawsuits against Apple and Microsoft, with little impact as it seems."

But Motorola fired the first shots in that battle, Poltorak noted. Motorola sued Apple in October for allegedly infringing 18 of its patents, and filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission. "Apple had no choice but to defend itself," Poltorak said.

Mueller argued that Motorola expected the lawsuit from Apple, and that its own lawsuit was a pre-emptive, defensive move. He sees Google's Motorola purchase as "buyer's desperation."

One thing observers did agree on is that buying Motorola is unlikely to help Google with its Oracle lawsuit. Google doesn't expect to complete the purchase until late this year or in early 2012, while the Oracle trial is scheduled to begin in 11 weeks. Oracle isn't in the wireless business, so Motorola's patents wouldn't be effective bargaining chips anyway. And Oracle is suing Google for copyright as well as patent infringement, Mixon noted.

Neither Goldberg or Mixon see the Oracle case as a deal-breaker for Android, however. Oracle wants Android to flourish so it can collect royalty fees from it, Mixon said. And Google has deep pockets, so it could afford to pay significant damages to Oracle if necessary, Goldberg said.