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Samsung (and Google, to a much lesser degree) are the only companies that make any profit on Android. Everyone else loses money on it, even if they have billion
by mwfunk 11y ago
Samsung (and Google, to a much lesser degree) are the only companies that make any profit on Android. Everyone else loses money on it, even if they have billions in revenue. "Lose money on every sale, but make it up in volume" isn't a viable business strategy, but that's where a lot of companies are at right now.
- tim333 11y agoMicrosoft makes ~$2bn/year from it.
- Aeolun 11y agoHow does MS make money from Android? App sales?
- sowbug 11y agoBy charging IP rents from phone manufacturers.
- rtkwe 11y agoPatent licensing fees. Microsoft holds a number of patents that they developed or purchased like exFAT and Exchange ActiveSync that are in every Android device made recently. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/chinese-govt-reveals-microsofts-secret-list-of-android-killer-patents/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/chinese-govt-reve...
- bitmapbrother 11y agoThey might have at one point, but I doubt they make close to that number anymore. Samsung was responsible for half of that revenue, but Samsung didn't like the deal they worked out and heavily renegotiated it which is why you see MS software bundled on their devices.
- fpgeek 11y agoYou're not looking at the whole board. There are other companies that make money off of Android. Qualcomm, for instance. They've made money off of Android by being the dominant SoC provider in the Android ecosystem (could've gone another way in a hypothetical Android-free world) and because Android pushed the smartphone market to grow faster than the alternatives (Symbian, Windows Mobile, etc) would have.