It shows up under the reporting of the Windows Phone Division
Windows Phone exists in the entertainment division, which is a division that neither pulls in big numbers, nor actually produces a profit. For the most recent quarter it still lost over $100MM.
If these massive Android profits are hidden in there -- in a division that hosts both the xbox and Windows Phone, and has revenue of just two billion a quarter -- then it can't be very big.
The estimate is Microsoft gets about $8 for each Android device sold
There are about 1.5 million Android devices sold a day. Do you think Microsoft is making $360 million a month from Android? $4.3 billion a year?
There is no universe where that is even remotely close to accurate, or Microsoft would be screaming from the mountaintops about their incredible, pure profit success. Instead they have to stuff the purported earnings into a nebulous division.
There's plenty of evidence Microsoft is making money on Android sales as companies selling Android keep announcing patent licensing deals with Microsoft.
Also, from that link, it suggests Microsoft now has 80% of the Android market covered by similar license agreements.
Are you actually replying to my posts, or just repeating the same content repeatedly? Yes, Microsoft keeps announcing agreements -- almost universally with companies that produce Windows Phone devices, who play along with this charade -- yet there is zero evidence in their profits that any of these deals are netting a dollar of revenue, further supported by the fact that Microsoft goes to great lengths to hide this income.
But I doubt very much Microsoft is going to go easy on them. Why would they?
Because they won't go easy on Microsoft? Microsoft is trying to make the transition to hardware (where the big money is now), and it turns out that all of those companies that Microsoft is yielding agreements have massive troves of patents that can demolish and eliminate Microsoft from the market.
It appears Google owned Motorola is trying to fight these Microsoft patents but they appear to be losing
Motorola told Microsoft to get lost (all Microsoft wanted, as an aside, was that Motorola keep making Windows Phone devices. That was the entirety of their demands when they didn't "go easy" on Motorola), and thus far Microsoft's effect on Motorola has been....nothing. Absolutely nothing. A couple of fringe patents that will get beaten back and beaten back.
So Windows Phone revenue is up $222 million for the quarter, which means they are either selling lots of Windows phones or they're making money from their patent licensing agreements.
It must be one or the other. Take your pick. I know which one I'd choose.
It must be one or the other. Take your pick. I know which one I'd choose.
Windows Phone has been doing remarkably well for the niche it holds. I mean, it is in the dark shadows of Android and iOS, but a couple of years ago it would have been held as stellar smartphone results.
Given that WP is estimated to be licensed at between $20 and $35 per (even though shenanigans see Microsoft returning all of that money to Nokia, it still counts as bogo-revenue), and there were some ten million Windows Phone devices activated, yes, that sum absolutely is accounted for by Windows Phone.
And then you have the fact that Microsoft makes patent money on FAT (on every single device in the world that uses FAT SD cards and the like), ActiveSync (patent licenses), and their portion of MPEG-LA...
...there is remarkably little space left to hide the enormous sum they supposedly make from Android.
It shows up under the reporting of the Windows Phone Division:
“Windows Phone revenue, reflecting patent licensing revenue and sales of Windows Phone licenses, increased $222 million for the quarter,”
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/10/micros...
> Given the actual reality that these dollar amounts don't exist
The estimate is Microsoft gets about $8 for each Android device sold:
http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-most-profitable-mobile-opera...