Microsoft is flying high with its patents that go along with Android devices. So far the biggest rumored payday from Microsoft from an Android smartphone marker has been the $5 per device that HTC is said to be paying for its licensing fee. Microsoft also landed a patent agreement with Wistron this week and now has its sights set on a much bigger target – Samsung.
Reuters reports that Microsoft is wanting Samsung to come to the license agreement fold and pay a whopping $15 for each smartphone it makes that runs Android. The high fee may be a scheme in some part to get Samsung to agree to produce more handsets that run Windows Phone 7. Reuters reports that Samsung would likely seek to cut that license fee to $10 per device with a promise of more WinPo 7 smartphones.
Samsung is the big fish in the Android sea with a huge number of the devices it makes running Android. Samsung is the world’s second largest mobile phone maker right behind Nokia. Samsung is also expected to become the world’s largest maker of smartphones soon with many of those devices on Android. Forecasts by analysts predict that Samsung will have sold 19 million smartphones in the quarter of April to June alone.
[via Reuters]
What the hell is happening here? First patent trolls, now patent trolls.
Thank you for your article
Enlast – Amberen – flamasil – BoilX
I wonder what Google is thinking about Microsoft squeezing cash from its hardware partners? I mean Im sure that Google is aware that these hardware manufactures are not happy with having to pay MS to use Android OS..~AND~ I wonder if Google will find a way to get around those patents when “Ice Cream Sandwich” is released? I wonder..
It’s really a theft! the double click is a patent of Mirosoft! It’s a shame that samsung be obliged to pay a license fee for that!
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