Windows Phone may be cheaper than Android - Inq boss
Free operating systems not unlike lunches, apparently
Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola has obliged one operator to look more closely at Windows Mobile. So says Inq boss Frank Meehan, who runs the Hutchison-owned handset company. He has a very interesting reason, which might surprise some of you.
Inq puts its own UI on Android, as seen here
with the Cloud Touch
Meehan says he thinks that the software cost of Windows Phone may now be lower than that of an Android phone. Android is nominally free: you download it and compile it. But the sticker price of the OS doesn't reflect the final software cost. A manufacturer needs to stump up for the royalties covering the wireless stacks. They may also be hit by other, unexpected royalty demands. And that makes Android a lot more uncertain than a supplier who can guarantee no nasty surprises, or insure against them.
"The advantages with Windows Mobile are that the legal issues and resulting costs seem to be much less," Meehan told GigaOm.
Google has refused to indemnify its licensees against patent trolls, leaving them to fend for themselves. And this means the cost of nasty surprises can add up when the final Bill of Materials is calculated. According to one analyst, Microsoft dinged HTC – the largest Android ODM by volume according to some estimates – for $5 per unit in royalties. It is a handy way for Redmond to compete with a free platform.
Inq was set up to create phones for Hutch-owned Three networks.
Meehan says other manufacturers are looking for alternatives too. True or bluff? As I wrote here last week, Android has received huge investment from licensees. And there's no immediate alternative they can jump to. Acquiring Motorola doesn't solve any immediate legal battles and until Google uses it to throw a protective umbrella around its Android licensees, it is useless. ®
COMMENTS
They used to call that a protection racket.
They say that Microsoft Mobile saves people from lawsuits against Android? You mean the ones Microsoft keeps filing?
I can see it now.
That's a nice little smartphone you have there, be a pity of something was to, you know, HAPPEN to it. Use our OS and we can promise you that no nasty lawyers will come by and mess up its pretty face, you don't want that, its bad for business........
FUD
The "expert" you mean, has failed again and again his predictions. His "analysis" are so wrong it isn't funny. His articles can safely be discounted as nothing more than anti-google FUD, and have been blown to bits several times by Groklaw and others.
Do you want to really know what are some of the patents? Just look here - http://phandroid.com/2011/08/22/of-motorola-mobilitys-17000-and-7500-pending-patents-18-will-be-key-to-protecting-android/ - and tell me again, with a straight face, how these patents don't help.
This article is another in a series of anti-google tirades by Mr. Orlowski which sorely miss any content.
Err, well Android would be cheaper if...
the likes of HTC etc didn't have to pay Microsoft protection money for every handset.
Pardon, old chap?
"The reasoning WinMo7 is discounted is simply because it's shit. I have used one it's not even close to Android 1.5,"
Don't misunderstand me, my phone's a Desire Z - very happy with Android, like the os very much. However, WP7 worse than the 1.5 iteration of Android? That kind of brain-dead teenage fanboism does nobody any service and simply makes you look like an ignorant expletive. If you cannot post anything other than that kind of spew, do us all a favour and vanish.
Do you know of these experts personally?
Or do you simply trust that if someone from El-Reg says they are an expert, then it must be true.
The only fact I know is that every Android licence shares are on the up since Google bought the Motorola patents. That's a MUCH more credible cite than some random "gun for hire" expert that nobody has ever heard of from the internet.
The reasoning WinMo7 is discounted is simply because it's shit. I have used one it's not even close to Android 1.5, it's got a severe lack of apps, and developers are thin on the ground. The only people praising it are those that are being offered incentives to praise it from Microsoft (lavish launch parties, free phones etc).
