Microsoft makes 6 billion with Android
Forbes reported that Samsung roughly paid Microsoft over one billion dollars for patent royalties in 2013. In that year Samsung sold some 300 million handsets, taking the exact numbers, they calculated a rough $3.40 per handset. With over 1.8 billion Android based smartphones around, that would theoretically mean that Microsoft has earned a whopping $6 billion with Android.
Given each manufacturer’s individual negotiations with Microsoft, the licensing fee is the biggest variable in that calculation. It also ignores income from tablet devices, and also puts aside that the recent licensing deals have included something that is just as important to Microsoft as licensing fees… access to a manufacturer’s user base.
Microsoft most probably did not get so much money transferred to its accounts, but they are definitely profiting from Android, be it patent royalties or access to the billions of users world wide.
You can read the article here.
Confusion over the future of Chrome OS
There were rumors that Google (or Alphabet) has plans to give up on its Chrome OS and integrate it into Android. One indication was the company’s choice to run the Pixel C on Android Marshmallow. Some people, mistakenly, named it the Chromebook Pixel C, which might have started the rumors. Google insists that it is a tablet and not a disguised Chromebook.
Google denied any plans to change the status quo, with the head of Android and Chrome OS, Hiroshi Lockheimer, saying “There’s a ton of momentum for Chromebooks and we are very committed to Chrome OS.” but Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, was also quoted as saying, “Mobile as a computing paradigm is eventually going to blend with what we think of as desktop today.” The guys at Google have taken lessons in politics apparently, they are not really denying or acknowledging anything.
The community is split on whether it is a good idea or not to integrate the two systems. Frankly if they manage to turn my phone into a functioning office companion and add the benefits of a mobile operating system to my laptop, without compromises of course, then I am game.
Huawei sales rise and Samsung lays off workers
Despite a global slowdown in smartphone sales, Huawei has managed to sell over 27 million handsets in the last quarter, an increase of 63% over last year’s sales. Analysts believe this is due to their new high end handsets. The company’s strategy to move away from the cheap image towards the premium sector has paid off.
Huawei is aiming at 100 million shipped smartphones until the end of the year, with its sales nearly doubling in Europe and the big success at home in China, there are good chances that they will reach their target.
Samsung on the other hand plans to lay off an additional 30% of its employees. The Korean company did a lot of things right with the Galaxy S5 and S6, but the pressure of keeping costs low is too high. An official advised workers that did not perform above average to leave the company, with a “sizeable compensation”.
This is not the first time that the company was forced to reduce its workforce, but apparently it was not enough. Now you have the feeling that they are looking for scapegoats, blaming the employees for the new wave of layoffs. Samsung announced
Underperformance and managers aged over fifty and officials who failed to be promoted to a higher level are the targets for the voluntary retirement program..
