Android Still Making Microsoft More Money than Windows Phone 7
A few months back industry analyst Horace Dediu estimated that Microsoft had earned $150 million through Q1 of 2011 on the sale of Android handsets. The figure he came up with for the sale of their own Windows Phone 7 platform? A meager $30 million. With the numbers reset for the second quarter of the year, Dediu has calculated that Android earned an estimated $60 million for the software giant, nearly three times the $21 million WP7 brought in during the same time period. It all boils down to licensing fees paid to the company, specifically those owed by HTC. Somewhere in the range of $5 per Android handset sold by the manufacturer goes straight into the coffers of Microsoft. Dediu’s calculations don’t take into account recent licensing agreements reached by additional Android manufacturers, but the entire exercise brilliantly demonstrates why recent patent lawsuits brought against Google and its manufacturing partners are such a big deal. Right now Android has the biggest slice of the pie. Its competitors, naturally, want to get their own taste.
[via BGR]