According to Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group in San Jose who spoke to BusinessWeek today, HTC and other OEMs (who agree to sign a licensing deal with MS) will have to pay Microsoft between $20 and $40 for each Android phone they build.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group in San Jose, California, estimates that HTC and most other handset manufacturers would have to pay Microsoft $20 to $40 per phone to license the intellectual property required for Android.
Unless Google somehow figures out how to ax this cost, “Android is going to fall off as an expensive and risky platform,” he said. “Nobody wants to deal with Microsoft.”
This sound a bit high in my opinion espcecialy when you compared to what a Windows Mobile license cost (around more-or-less $15/phone). If this turns out to be true then Microsoft really did slap Google in the face with this licensing agreeement yesterday. For now only HTC agreed to sign but Microsoft has already announced that they are currently in talks with other Android OEMs…
Source: BusinessWeek
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