Microsoft Now Collects Royalties From Over Half of All Android Devices 241
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has inked a deal with Compal Electronics, which pumps out gadgets that run Android and Chrome OS, for an undisclosed sum."
Microsoft has an explanatory weblog post; with this deal over half of all Android devices are licensing patents from Microsoft. Notably refusing to cooperate and instead opting for the court battle route are Motorola and Barnes and Noble.
Re:Android the free OS. (Score:5, Insightful)
MS may be making money off other peoples' work, but look at what this picture is telling us. Manufacturers would rather pay MS to not use their windows OSes. That's pretty damning!
Re:If I ever get a smart phone (Score:2, Insightful)
Because they (Apple) never go after anyone with questionable patent claims or because Apple has already paid for/cross-licensed everything they need with the companies you don't like?
Re:evil (Score:2, Insightful)
oh and Microsoft, please sue amazon please, that might turn out to be fun.
Dear Dell623. We at Amazon regret to inform you that we are already licensing Microsofts IP [google.com], a fact that has obviously has been kept a secret when someone as well informed as yourself doesnt know about it.
this is pure extortion 'you violate our patents we can't tell you which ones'. Why don't you pay us a small percentage of your sales to make the problem go away?
When they sign the standard non-discloser agreement used in licensing negotiations in the industry, they find out which patents. Barnes and Noble has skillfully tricked some people that arent well informed into thinking that Microsoft refused to disclose the information, when in actuality it was B&N that refused to enter licensing talks.
Re:Bad Choice (Score:3, Insightful)
Corporate lawyers are pretty good at estimating the success of this sort of thing. Microsoft will probably offer to settle at some point, but have to carry this through a certain way because a threat of a lawsuit is worthless if you aren't seen to be willing to carry it out.
Notice how concepts such as justice and who's actually in the right don't come into this...
Re:I've always wondered why Google is mostly silen (Score:2, Insightful)
Google can't do anything about the FAT patent that everyone has to use for card storage. Consumers expect to be able to pull the SD card from a device and have it usable in something else without having to worry about file system drivers. FAT is the defacto standard for memory cards today.
The industry fell asleep on this one, when they should have all worked together to create a license and royalty free open spec file system. The blew it and are now paying the price, well, we the consumer is paying the price.
Re:Like the Novell agreement or beneficial to MS? (Score:2, Insightful)
What are you talking about? Windows 7 is by far the best OS Microsoft has put out and, in my opinion, far easier to use than any other desktop OS (I feel like Apple's OS has stagnated and KDE and GNOME are just poor man's copycats). The swtich from XP to 7 is an easy choice for any company since it is more secure, more stable, and more user-friendly.
I will not use my mod points just because I disagree with you. But here's my response:
Windows 7 has been nothing like usable. Usability seriously dropped compared to XP. I mean there are so many small quirks that are damn annoying and not intuitive. I still am baffled by the overwrite dialogue every time it appears. It's the worst usability offender by far, because it uses two UX elements at the same time. Even if Gnome and KDE are "poor man's copycats"(which they no longer are), they are much more consistent. In short, I am able to operate KDE/Gnome while I'm drunk and can't understand how to do most tasks in Win7.
Re:Android the free OS. (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess if the cellphone manufacturers aren't willing to run Microsoft's mobile OS on their devices, Microsoft will just have to start acting like all the other patent trolls that don't make viable products either.