I don't know all the details-- there were probably confidentiality agreements-- but I do know that
HTC opted to start paying patent blackmail (aka patent licensing) fee to Microsoft. HTC's other option was to lawyer up and fight to defend the free and open source operating system on which they based their phones. HTC's phones would not exist if not for the work shared in the commons by scores of companies and individuals.
I got my HTC phone before this all went down, but I'll never buy another. Samsung is the new king of Android based phones now. In some small part, I think HTC's behavior helped that change along.
HTC posted a loss of 101 millon in last quarter. I wonder how many units they shipped? Rumor has it, the patent deal was $5 per unit. I'm betting that five bucks a phone give away is looking pretty bad about now.
No comments:
Post a Comment