Microsoft to get $20 to $40 from every HTC Android phone sold?
4/30/2010 12:58:00 PM
kenmouse
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We’ve reported about the HTC – Microsoft agreement according to which HTC has agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft, because it turned out that the Taiwanese company’s Android phones use some technology patented by the Redmond giant.
While HTC and Microsoft have not disclosed the financial aspects of the agreement, it looks like HTC may have to pay serious cash to Microsoft.
A Bloomberg article has it that analyst Rob Enderle estimates that HTC, as well as other unnamed phone makers, may have to pay Microsoft $20 to $40 for each Android handset sold. Of course, analyst predictions can be (and often are) wrong. $40 per phone is way too much.
Rob Enderle also says that “Android is going to fall off as an expensive and risky platform”, unless Google manages to avoid paying that much money to Microsoft.
I’m not sure what Google has to do with the fact that HTC needs to pay royalties. Yes, Android is Google’s, but I think the alleged patent violation is related to hardware rather than to software, or maybe to the way HTC implements Android on its hardware. Otherwise, Microsoft could have directly sued Google, right?
It’s not clear yet how new Android phones from HTC (like the just-launched Verizon Droid Incredible, seen above) will be affected by this, but we’ll report back when new details emerge.
While HTC and Microsoft have not disclosed the financial aspects of the agreement, it looks like HTC may have to pay serious cash to Microsoft.
A Bloomberg article has it that analyst Rob Enderle estimates that HTC, as well as other unnamed phone makers, may have to pay Microsoft $20 to $40 for each Android handset sold. Of course, analyst predictions can be (and often are) wrong. $40 per phone is way too much.
Rob Enderle also says that “Android is going to fall off as an expensive and risky platform”, unless Google manages to avoid paying that much money to Microsoft.
I’m not sure what Google has to do with the fact that HTC needs to pay royalties. Yes, Android is Google’s, but I think the alleged patent violation is related to hardware rather than to software, or maybe to the way HTC implements Android on its hardware. Otherwise, Microsoft could have directly sued Google, right?
It’s not clear yet how new Android phones from HTC (like the just-launched Verizon Droid Incredible, seen above) will be affected by this, but we’ll report back when new details emerge.
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