Microsoft's Hottest New Profit Center: Android

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday July 5, 2011 @08:23AM from the follow-the-money dept.

jbrodkin writes "One of Microsoft's hottest new profit centers is a smartphone platform you've definitely heard of: Android. Google's Linux-based mobile operating system is a favorite target for Microsoft's patent attorneys, who are suing numerous Android vendors and just today announced that another manufacturer has agreed to write checks to Microsoft every time it ships an Android device. Vendors paying off Microsoft for the right to use Android now include HTC, Velocity Micro, General Dynamics, Onkyo Corp. and Wistron. Microsoft likely makes more money from Android than its own Windows phone platform, and its latest patent agreement announced Tuesday indicates Microsoft is also going after Google's Linux-based Chromebooks."

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Re:When Is A Company.... by dclozier · 2011-07-05 08:30 · Score: 4, Interesting

Barnes & Noble is standing up to Microsoft. (buy a Nook to help out!)
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/27/barnes-noble-microsoft-patented-nook-features-trivial-licensing-fees-exorbitant/
Re:The legal and patent system are broken. by Surt · 2011-07-05 09:06 · Score: 3, Interesting

Isn't that the whole point of having a patent system at all? So that your competitors can't just steal your ideas and undersell you to drive you out of business?

--
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Re:Back to their roots by AmberBlackCat · 2011-07-05 12:06 · Score: 1, Interesting

They never really were a tech company, IMO. Their innovations: EULA and software licensing. Most of their products were bought, copied stolen.
Just like Google...