Comments on: Microsoft – From Danger Comes Gold

By: Windows Phone – No hero in zero | Radio Free Mobile

Windows Phone – No hero in zero | Radio Free Mobile — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:54:09 +0000

[…] First: Microsoft owns some fundamental patents on Android Open Source Project (AOSP). (see here). […]

By: Microsoft and HTC – Lip service | Radio Free Mobile

Microsoft and HTC – Lip service | Radio Free Mobile — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 07:08:38 +0000

[…] The piece that I believe that everyone is missing is the fact that Microsoft owns a large number of patents that are essential to Android. (see here). […]

By: windsorr

windsorr — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:03:48 +0000

Agree completely….the fight would have been much harder without a carrot despite MSFT havin them banged to rights.

By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:08:09 +0000

I have to admit I did not look at MS financial statements all that closely, but doesn’t it combine WP, Xbox and Internet services into one division? With the endless losses of the internet division, costs of the new Xbox development, it might be able to hide a billion dollars of extra income in there. If some of the patents were assigned to enterprise division, some of the royalties could be listed under that division, too. However, I agree it must be offering some discounts for supporting WP. This may explain why OEMs settled so fast with MS, but some are still dragging it out with Nokia.

By: windsorr

windsorr — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:26:10 +0000

You see how that works…get them to pay the royalty for Windows Phone and let them off the $10-15 it was seeking for Android. Thats a great deal for handset makers making mostly android. Shoudl Windows phone take off they wont mind payin the royality becase of the good deal they have had in the past!. If MSFT really received that royalty in cash for every adroid handset shipped you would see it in the MSFT’s numbers. You dont so I suspect that there is a deal going on behind the scenes.

By: tatilsever

tatilsever — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:06:09 +0000

If the WP license fees are really around $16 per phone, this would be a classic good news, bad news story. The rumor is that MS charges $10 to $15 in royalty payments per Android handset, in addition to what Nokia is going after. In other words, even though Android OS costs are the same or more, OEMs are pushing Android much more forcefully. Of course, if profits are what really matter, high margins from royalties in a booming field is great news, but if what MS craves most is influence (if not dominance) in that booming field, it is horrible.