Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner, said Monday's job cuts don't necessarily point to Google dropping workers and just keeping the patents. "We will have to wait and see about that," she said.

Certainly, she added, the job cuts would suggest a narrowing of Motorola's focus, and fewer devices with broader appeal and more importantly devices that will deliver the Google experience."

More than the hardware itself, Milanesi said Google is "about the ecosystem and enhancing the overall experience around Google services ... Making money out of the hardware is a game that only very few can succeed at nowadays."

With Samsung and Apple controlling more than half of the smartphone market, there is going to be more and more consolidation that puts pressure on Motorola and others to adjust,analysts noted.

Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said that while Google always wanted the Motorola patents, it also wanted the company's workers because of their phone expertise and engineering capabilities.