Pretty sure you read this somewhat hilarious yet fact filled report which said that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device, yes - 5 dollars for every device. Why in the world is Microsoft getting paid for a device manufactured by HTC and running Android? Patent settlement. Microsoft and HTC reached patent settlement over intellectual property infringement. Now the patent settlement resulted in HTC paying Microsoft royalties.
It's not just HTC, Microsoft is also suing every single Android manufacturer and aiming for $7.50 to $12.50 per device.
Analyst Horace Dediu makes an interesting comparison with Windows phone : It's not just HTC, Microsoft is also suing every single Android manufacturer and aiming for $7.50 to $12.50 per device.
A rough estimate of the number of HTC Android devices shipped is 30 million. If HTC paid $5 per unit to Microsoft, that adds up to $150 million Android revenues for Microsoft.Read complete article here.
Microsoft has admitted selling 2 million Windows Phone licenses (though not devices.) Estimating that the license fee is $15/WP phone, that makes Windows Phone revenues to date $30 million.
So Microsoft has received five times more income from Android than from Windows Phone.
Note - $15 per windows phone is a working assumption, Asymco clarified this to me on twitter.
Try to put yourself in the place of OEMs, what would you think would be a logical step now that Microsoft has proved with mango update that Windows phones has the caliber to compete aggressively with iOS and Android, drop in your thoughts. It's a win win situation for Microsoft because they get paid anyways. Now they need to buck up, push next gen windows phone devices with improved hardware and sue more android manufacturers to disrupt the market. They have won me over with their OS anyways, which is quite obvious.
Source : BI and Asymco
