Is Microsoft ready to suck a little royalty from your project? - Patent portfolio on standby!
It is being reported on the net that HTC has signed a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. Ive yet to see exactly what patents Microsoft is claiming that Android (and in this case HTC) are actually infringing, but what it seems to mean is that for every HTC mobile phone sold, Microsoft will get royalties.
Heres what PCW had to say:
Microsoft claims Android violates its intellectual property, although it has yet to specify the patents involved. Redmond has previously made similar noises about Linux, a close relative of Android…..
Great news for Microsoft eh? Let someone else deploy the popular platform and then take your cut from it. Of course Microsoft “innovates” and its that innovation which I will look at a little further:
My nightmare with Windows Mobile
I haven’t mentioned it for a while so I feel justified to do so again. I was an owner of an MDA Mail running (and I use that word loosely) Windows Mobile. It was due to my experiences of Windows Mobile that I had given up the idea of being productive online on a mobile phone. It’s also the first mobile which had its battery cover break through constantly removing the battery (yes my Windows Mobile crashes were so severe, the only way to switch off the phone was to take the battery out) I was not alone in my opinions of Windows Mobile and I think its fair to say when you look at the successes the alternatives to Windows Mobile have had, Microsoft really has some issues with its mobile market.
An HTC Hero to the rescue!
On a recommendation of a friend I tried Android, specifically with the HTC Hero. I was very impressed, not only at how much I could do, but how quickly I could do it.
So now we see a world where Microsoft does not need to deploy a phone or an OS. They can simply wait and then play a patent card in the hope they can cream royalties of the top of someone else’s success (and I think its agreed that HTC/Android combo is a great product)
Theres a great message to innovators out there: Dont create anything too popular or functional as you may find a hungry pair of Microsoft eyes watching you…..
It was summed up nicely for me on the PCW article:
As for Google, once Apple and Microsoft are done extracting royalties, building an Android phone might someday be as expensive as licensing a smartphone OS from Microsoft or Apple.
Happy times ahead? The futures bright, the futures Microsoft? - This really has to stop. Are we now to see Microsoft in the future not creating anything? merely waiting for someone else to produce a popular and loved product and then wheel out their portfolio in order to “skim a little off the top” Are we going to see Microsoft as a company which is merely a tax for other peoples idea’s which Microsoft can threaten with Patent action? but most importantly, why is Microsoft not disclosing full details of which patents are being infringed so developers can work around it? - I think the answer is obvious, but I will end on words by Steve Ballmer:
Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches
There is a cancer here in my opinion, but I don’t think its Linux.
Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com
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