Microsoft Earns More from Android than Windows Phone 7
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 29th May 2011 21:29 UTC, submitted by teigetje
Microsoft It turns out that a lot of people haven't been paying attention. Over the weekend, a story about how Microsoft is earning more from HTC's Android devices than from its own Windows Phone 7 sales spread all across the web, with surprised reactions everywhere. Anyone who has been paying attention to Microsoft's recent patent trolling regarding Android could've seen this coming.
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RE: Patent troll?
by lemur2 on Mon 30th May 2011 01:33 UTC in reply to "Patent troll?"
lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

I'm not sure MS deserves to be labelled as a 'patent troll' for this. MS has been investing in smartphones for 10+ years, and although its market share is pitifully small it has contributed a lot of innovations that other systems are now using. It's certainly not a company that makes no products where patent litigation is a primary strategy. Since a Windows Phone uses more MS technology than other platforms, the revenue MS receives from it per handset is significantly higher. MS would obviously far sooner sell a Windows handset than an Android one. HTC (like anyone else) is free to develop a phone that doesn't use MS innovations, and sell it for whatever price consumers are willing to pay. Ultimately the market decides what Microsoft's innovations are really worth. Nobody is forced to use Microsoft's innovations, merely to pay for the innovations they use.


Point of clarification: Mircrosoft has not established in a court of law that Android does infringe on any valid patents held by Microsoft.

All that Microsoft has established is that it is able to threaten firms like HTC with a lawsuit that will cost HTC more money to contest than it is worth compared to signing a deal with Microsoft.

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