Google's acquisition of a team of smartphone engineers from HTC could prove important to its future. In the short term, the team should help Google's Pixel phones better compete with Apple's iPhone and other flagship smartphones. But longer term, the deal fills in an important gap for Google, as it looks to compete in a world without smartphones.

Google, it seems, is gearing up for a post-smartphone world. 

At first glance, its acquisition of a team of smartphone engineers from HTC might...

Continue Reading Google's $1.1 billion deal with HTC is about something much bigger than making a better smartphone (GOOG, GOOGL)