Microsoft announced on Thursday that LG signed a licensing agreement for its Android and Chrome OS products. LG is one of several Android manufacturers which have a licensing agreement with the Redmond company. It’s ironic, but some analysts believe Microsoft receives more revenue from these Android agreements, than it does from its own Windows Phone OS.
Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft’s Intellectual Property Group, sums up the situation nicely in this statement,
“We are pleased to have built upon our longstanding relationship with LG to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Together with our 10 previous agreements with Android and Chrome OS device manufacturers, including HTC, Samsung and Acer, this agreement with LG means that more than 70 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the U.S. are now receiving coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio”
That 70 percent is a whopping number which must stick in the back of Google like a knife. It doesn’t help that Microsoft employes are using Twitter to instigate Google with tweets proclaiming “Hey Google – we are the 70% #anotherandroidlicense”. Not surprisingly, Google has yet to respond to this announcement.
[Via Microsoft]