Nikon Buckles To Microsoft, Will Pay "Android Tax" For Smart Cameras

walterbyrd writes with news that Nikon is the latest company to agree to pay Microsoft for the privilege of using Android on its devices — as you might expect from Nikon, the devices in this case are cameras. (Microsoft's press release.)

Comments

Re:Time for Microsoft to be sued out of existence

[Anonymous Coward]

Awwwww poor widdle microsoft wubers crying cuz someone states the truth??

Microsoft hasn't innovated anything in 20 years, which is only slightly better than Apple....

Re:Hey buddy

[icebike]

Oh, climb down before you hurt yourself.

Its not Android that Microsoft is licensing, its some of their protocols, (MTP most likely).

Nikon didn't have to use MTP in their cameras, and many would be happier if they didn't, but is solves a lot of problems for them with regard to getting pictures off of the camera. It means the don't have to include any software drivers for the camera, because they can just use what is already available on end-user's machines.

It could also be some elements of Fat32, NTFS, for storage card access, or Windows Networking, for wifi access / printing.

When Android provides replacement for these technologies they manufacturers can avoid them. But until then, if manufacturers continue to use Microsoft technology patents they are going to have to pay. There are many open source replacements that Google could have provided, but these haven't caught on.