The Redmond software giant announced on Monday that General Dynamics Itronix has signed a patent agreement that will provide “broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio”. Not many people realize how large of a collection of patents Microsoft holds on mobile devices, and im betting this is a pretty good chunk of revenue they generate from said patents. HTC already gives Microsoft money for Android based smart phones and they are one of the largest makers of smartphones in the world.
According to the article i read “Microsoft receives $5 per Android device HTC ships.” that’s nothing to shrug off, this means Microsoft could eventually make more money from patent licensing than desktop software such as Windows 7. read the article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/27/microsoft_patent_android/
In related old news, check out this old article from last year around this time: http://allthingsd.com/20101129/microsofts-plan-b-to-make-money-in-phones-patents/
Another little known fact is that Apple and Microsoft have a patent swap deal so they license patents from each other.