Count me as among the dubious when it comes to Microsoft’s quest to dominate mobile devices as it does the desktop. But just because Windows Phone 7 might not supplant iOS and Android anytime soon, that doesn’t mean Microsoft won’t still rake in a helluva lot of money off the handset/tablet market, according to this fascinating tidbit from InformationWeek’s Microsoft blog:
Android, the number-one smartphone platform, doesn’t generate any direct revenue for Google since it is an open source platform. It does, however, generate a tidy sum for Microsoft. HTC reportedly pays Microsoft $5 for every HTC phone sold that has Android loaded on it.
HTC, the leading manufacturer of Android phones, is estimated to have shipped about 30 million units. So that $5 per phone license fee would come to about $150 million. Sweet.
And it’s only likely to get sweeter. The intellectual property rights underlying Android are widely acknowledged to be a total fucking mess, making it the subject of numerous patent infringement lawsuits… infringements for which Google does not indemnify Android licensees. Building on its HTC deal, Microsoft is suing other Android manufacturers, and is now reportedly seeking payments of between $7.50 and $12.50 per device. That starts to add up to real money, even by Microsoft’s inflated standards.
Of course, as InformationWeek’s Ed Hansberry and others point out, the real motive behind Microsoft’s patent strategy is to pressure device makers to switch from Android to WP7. Margins are already vanishingly thin for nearly every device maker not named Apple, and by squeezing them further, Microsoft could ultimately make a WP7 license more affordable than the putatively free Android. But either way, it looks like a Win win-win for the folks in Redmond.
ur like the new brier dudley, dood.
And this is why software patents suck.
What @2 said.
Microsoft used to make more per unit on Mac than on Windows too.
That’s why we need an Asset Tax on Intangibles like Intellectual Property.
Right now our Government is spending billions to protect and defend these patent properties. People go to war and die, in part, to protect not only our land, but our IP.
Therefore, it should be taxed.
This headline works better:
“Microsoft makes more money”
Nothing new. Remember when MS forced consumers to purchase a license for MS-DOS when buying a new computer, regardless of whether the computer even HAD a copy of MS-DOS installed? Yeah, just the fact that one COULD install MS-DOS on it was enough of an argument for MS to justify collecting a licensing fee.
And it stood up in court, too.
It’s no longer a game about who can make the best product the most people buy. The game is patents and intellectual property, people don’t make ideas anymore, they own them forever, never letting go. Microsoft didn’t help make Android, it’s lawyers played the better game. You could make the worst products in the world (exploiting labor from 3rd world countries that KILL THEMSELVES for your product), that tank, and because you found out Google didn’t cross their eyes and dot their tees, you win anyway. Capitalism died a really long time ago. This is just bullshit. I can’t support one company without supporting them all. Someone please wake me up.
ahh
you guys complain but you all buy MS producst. Office, Windows 7
you buy them perso and in your job, so why do you complain ????
SCO redux. When Microsoft can’t innovate, or force their own products down peoples throats through their initial monopoly on DOS, they resort to extortion.