Android is already a leading platform for smartphones with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 trailing extremely far behind, although Microsoft hopes that will change with their Mango update and new WP7 devices. In April last year, Microsoft said it had reached a licensing deal with Taiwan’s HTC Corp, under which it would receive royalty payments on its handsets running Android.
However, despite being extremely far behind Android and iOS, Microsoft has still managed to profit from Android sales, due to licensing agreements over some patents that Android has supposedly infringed upon.
HTC has already been paying Microsoft $5 for every Android handset sold, but now it looks like Microsoft will want $15 from Samsung per Android device sold, and considering that Samsung is now the OEM to beat in terms of smartphones, Microsoft will stand to make millions. The Samsung Galaxy S II has apparently sold 3 million units, multiply that by $15 per phone, Microsoft will stand to gain $45 million just by Samsung Galaxy S II sales itself.
Samsung has reportedly attempted to bargain for $10 per phone and it is not known what Microsoft’s response is yet. So now time to see that Microsoft may hurt their relationship with Samsung by asking for such a high figure per phone, compared to HTC’s $5!
