4 ms·

I speculate that Microsoft snapped up Nokia because they threatened starting an Android line of phones. Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. MS al

I speculate that Microsoft snapped up Nokia because they threatened starting an Android line of phones. Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. MS also gets a nice patent bonus along [..] Apple admitted defeat in its patent fight with Nokia, something it hasn't done with anybody else Apple has (well had but I'd bet dollars to donuts it was renewed) a patent cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft so this could be a win for Apple as well.

corresation 13y ago
Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. Purportedly. I engaged in a debate on here before which involved trying to find the supposedly enormous sums of money that Microsoft makes from Android in their quarterly financial statements. At best it has to amount to what would be chump change to a company like Microsoft. Instead we hear about supposed agreements where vendors who all happen to also be Windows Phone makers pay some unknown sum to Microsoft, which for all we know is used towards their WP licensing. If Nokia released Android phones it would been devastating to Microsoft's mobile platform. It would have ruined it.
- throwawaykf02 13y ago
  I think people dug into their latest earnings and made a case that MS did make a few hundred mil on Android phone licenses. But you're right: it's chump change to MS, and Nokia putting out even a single Android phone would have been a huge blow to MS.
- cpayne 13y ago
  I think this is where the message gets mixed. It's not about how much Microsoft makes, its that apparently Microsoft makes more from Android than Windows phone[1]. [1] http://www.infoworld.com/t/android/microsoft-makes-more-android-windows-smartphones-707 http://www.infoworld.com/t/android/microsoft-makes-more-andr...
throwawaykf02 13y ago
I have no specific knowledge at all of any cross-licensing here (and if I did, I surely won't comment on it in public), but from the few license deals I very tangentially know of, they happen in terms of portfolios of assets valid at a given time for a given period. That is, you get rights to portfolio X of N issued patents for M years, and I get rights to portfolio Y of P issued patents for Q years. We negotiate to assign some value to those portfolios, and if they don't even out, somebody pays the other a royalty. However, I cannot imagine anybody signing an eternal, all-encompassing cross-licensing deal to each others' portfolios. This is for many reasons, one simply being that one never knows what could be invented, and another being one simply doesn't know when the other will stop inventing and thus, reciprocating. Yes, Apple certainly has a cross-license deal in place with MS (in addition to the one from the 90s, given the number of UI features WP shares with iOS but has not been sued over). But I would be very surprised if this acquisition was included in those deals. Rather, the relevant cross-licenses were made when Apple settled with Nokia.
null_ptr 13y ago
> Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. Yes, but I assume not nearly as much as they'd make from the sale of their own phone system tied into their own application and media ecosystem. On average, this coupling would keep producing revenue long after the original sale.

corresation 13y ago

Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. Purportedly. I engaged in a debate on here before which involved trying to find the supposedly enormous sums of money that Microsoft makes from Android in their quarterly financial statements. At best it has to amount to what would be chump change to a company like Microsoft. Instead we hear about supposed agreements where vendors who all happen to also be Windows Phone makers pay some unknown sum to Microsoft, which for all we know is used towards their WP licensing. If Nokia released Android phones it would been devastating to Microsoft's mobile platform. It would have ruined it.

throwawaykf02 13y ago
I think people dug into their latest earnings and made a case that MS did make a few hundred mil on Android phone licenses. But you're right: it's chump change to MS, and Nokia putting out even a single Android phone would have been a huge blow to MS.
cpayne 13y ago
I think this is where the message gets mixed. It's not about how much Microsoft makes, its that apparently Microsoft makes more from Android than Windows phone[1]. [1] http://www.infoworld.com/t/android/microsoft-makes-more-android-windows-smartphones-707 http://www.infoworld.com/t/android/microsoft-makes-more-andr...

throwawaykf02 13y ago

I have no specific knowledge at all of any cross-licensing here (and if I did, I surely won't comment on it in public), but from the few license deals I very tangentially know of, they happen in terms of portfolios of assets valid at a given time for a given period. That is, you get rights to portfolio X of N issued patents for M years, and I get rights to portfolio Y of P issued patents for Q years. We negotiate to assign some value to those portfolios, and if they don't even out, somebody pays the other a royalty. However, I cannot imagine anybody signing an eternal, all-encompassing cross-licensing deal to each others' portfolios. This is for many reasons, one simply being that one never knows what could be invented, and another being one simply doesn't know when the other will stop inventing and thus, reciprocating. Yes, Apple certainly has a cross-license deal in place with MS (in addition to the one from the 90s, given the number of UI features WP shares with iOS but has not been sued over). But I would be very surprised if this acquisition was included in those deals. Rather, the relevant cross-licenses were made when Apple settled with Nokia.

null_ptr 13y ago

> Remember that MS makes money off Android phones. Yes, but I assume not nearly as much as they'd make from the sale of their own phone system tied into their own application and media ecosystem. On average, this coupling would keep producing revenue long after the original sale.