Microsoft may have a mobile operating system that has a very small market share but the company is making quite a lot of money from Android, the operating system with the largest market share globally. Windows operating system has not really become the threat to Android and iOS Microsoft hoped it would be, and from all indications its popularity keeps going downhill.
Microsoft’s Nokia acquisition has been a major failure, Windows phones haven’t really taken off and Nokia sank along with Windows mobile operating system. Nokia Lumia phones became the nail in Nokia’s coffin.
However, despite its failure with its own mobile operating system, Microsoft secretly makes billions of dollars from Android operating system. Although a direct competitor to its own platform, Microsoft has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Android’s success.
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| Image credit: LifeHacker |
According to Forbes, it was reported that in 2013 alone, Samsung paid Microsoft a sum $1,041,642,161 and fifty cents. Considering the number of phones Samsung sold that year, Microsoft got about $3.41 per device. Assuming, this same amount is paid on all 1.808 billion Android smartphones (installed base), Microsoft might have made up to six billion dollars.
Again, it should be considered that Microsoft probably has different agreements with different smartphone manufacturers. The tablet market too may not be as big as the smartphone market, but adding that to Microsoft’s speculated $6 billion profit even makes the numbers even bigger.
Microsoft may be failing hard in its own domain but Android OS hasn’t only benefitted Google and rescued several OEMs from obscurity, the Bill Gates-founded has been one of the biggest financial benefactors of the platform thanks to its 310 patents.