Apparently, some very interesting rumors have been floating around the internet. I figured, why not give them a shot and choose to believe at the very least a small part of them ( rumors are rumors, after all – the fact that some of them are proven true doesn’t necessarily cancel out the fact that others are false ).
Before Microsoft purchased Nokia’s phone division, the software titan was actually paying the phone maker circa 1 billion dollars per year as an incentive for Nokia to go with Windows Phone over other alternatives. The rumor states that the company may now be offering the same deal to other companies as well, although with a few minor alterations.
As it would turn out, the rumor states that Samsung has taken the deal and will be receiving around 1.2 billion dollars to make Windows Phone 8 handsets. The logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that some heavy negotiating must have taken part, as the deal was around 1 billion back in the middle of December. To make things interesting, apparently Samsung isn’t alone in this. Rumors suggest that Microsoft has been sweet-talking Sony as well to make Windows Phone handsets, although they’re only getting 500 million dollars. Surprising enough, Huawei is allegedly getting a cut too ( bigger than Sony, actually ) of 600 million dollars. Other smaller companies whose name has yet to be released will be receiving lower sums of circa 300 million dollars.
The most surprising thing here seems to be that HTC is getting nothing – either that, or they’re still keeping it a secret. All Microsoft money aside, HTC has had some serious money issues in the past and is now in the red, finding themselves in a situation in which a cash infusion would really be helpful. However, HTC’s interest in WP seems to have died out as they haven’t really release a WP handset since the 8X and 8S Duo. All things considered, Samsung isn’t really the prime-example of a Windows Phone creator themselves.
Now this is where problems tend to appear: considering that Microsoft owns the Lumia line, they’re essentially owning 90% of the market. The problem here would be that, while the software CAN and IS making its own hardware ( see the Microsoft Surface tablets ), there’s more profit to be made in licensing out software to other devices belonging to other companies.
Should those rumors end up being true, I think Sony would really benefit from the cash infusion since some of its other divisions aren’t really doing so well ( like the Cameras and TVs and so on ). Huawei would also profit from the legitimacy since they really aren’t all that well-known or popular in the west. Still, until the companies’ official press release confirms it, these are just rumors and should be treated as such.
Ah, let’s not forget that Microsoft has also been working on their mysterious HOLY GRAIL of the phone world – a Nokia phone with Android ( the Nokia Normandy – I still have my doubts about its legitimacy and won’t really mention it until anything official ). Microsoft is truthfully making quite a little money from licensing deals over Android, so this may just allow them to reinvest the cash into their own platform.
Edit:
Apparently some of the rumors have just been put to rest. Indeed, Microsoft is co-marketing with other companies in the attempt to increase Windows Phone popularity. While they didn’t confirm or deny the previous companies, they did mention that the 2.6 billions given in total is an entirely fictional number. Time will tell which companies are doing business with them and how much they’re each receiving.
