This morning a report was released stating that Android puts more money in Microsoft’s bank than Windows phone. HTC, which runs Android on a number of its devices is required to pay Microsoft, $5 per unit sold, due to an out of court settlements involving patent violation. That being said, if HTC sells around 30 million devices, that would mean they would be paying Microsoft a grand total of (I’m sure our reader can do the math) $150 million. Now that’s a good chunk of cash just from HTC that’s going straight to company that owns the mobile platform, Windows Phone.
Now if you take the above information that was released by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard and compare it to Window Phone’s position, Android seems to be the money maker. Microsoft’s information says that Windows Phone has sold 2 million licenses. So at $15 a license, that would total to $30 million. Not quite the cash cow that Android seems to be.
Microsoft is making truck loads of cash from HTC, so it only make sense they would go after all the other Android device manufacturers, looking for a per unit fee, so as to get a cut of the profits across the board, as also reported by Walter Pritchard.
[via bgr]