Is Microsoft Digging Its Own Grave With Android Patents

[crustyasp46]

Is Microsoft Digging Its Own Grave With Android Patents
Tue, 2011-10-25 13:33 by Neil Richards

Microsoft is fast earning the reputation of being a troll instead of an innovator in the mobile space. The company dominated the desktop segment purely on the basis of anti-competitive business practices where they forced all competitors out of the market thus creating a monopoly. That monopoly is collapsing as OS is becoming more and more redundant in the era of Web and mobile computing.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone is a massive failure. Instead of pulling up socks and creating better products the company has resorted to the same old anti-competitive business practices which it used for selling its ‘stolen’, as Steve Jobs said, Windows OS.

Microsoft’s new business model is Regurgitation
Microsoft is threatening companies which use Android to either sign a deal with them or to face court cases. Most companies find it cheaper to pay ransom to a highly abusive company like Microsoft instead of fighting in the court.

What Brad Smith proudly calls a victory by Microsoft, is pretty much like an alley-bully rejoicing in the money it snatched from the people walking by, yelling, “We own this street, if you wanna pass ya better pay us.”

Now, Brad does that make Microsoft look good? No, its further strengthens the image of Microsoft as a baddie.

If you look at Microsoft’s press releases you don’t see a single release about new features or improvements of Windows phones. All you see is Brad Smith boasting of yet another deal, which further proves that Microsoft’s strategy is to stay in the mobile business not through innovation or better products, but via extortion deals and regurgitating old technologies.

It seems Microsoft will soon shrink to a patent troll which will stop developing anything new (it never did) and will live off work done by others.

Android Licences Digging Microsoft’s Mobile Grave?
Microsoft is hyper-venting at these licence deals, trying to create an image as if these are the only deals these companies sign. Which is incorrect. Companies continue to sign cross licencing deals all the time for various things. It must be noted that Microsoft’s own UI was developed by Apple and Microsoft licenced it from Apple. Does that mean Apple owns Microsoft’s windows?

Since Microsoft has never disclosed the amount it gets from each deal, we are left to speculate and in a thin margin business like smartphones, I think Microsoft is not getting more than a few cents per unit sold. Samsung may be paying only 50 cents per unit sold, unless Microsoft disclose these numbers.

Another notable point is that the patent’s Microsoft claims are ‘generic’ for smartphones UIs and not specific to Android. Any other mobile OS will be vulnerable to Microsoft’s trollish attack. According to reports most of these patents will expire in a few years leaving Microsoft with no source of revenue from the mobile segment. So, its a ticking time bomb for Microsoft. They are trying to gather as much food as it can before winter comes.

What Microsoft is trying to do here is a desperate move which makes them look even badder and smaller. They are thinking that they will send out a message that Android is not free and you have to pay Microsoft ransom if you want to use Android. This is backfiring on Microsoft.

These deals are creating a hostile relationship with companies, who are forced to pay Microsoft's extortion fee. They will never put Windows on their phone other than the forced clause Microsoft may have added in the deals.

When they have already paid Microsoft ransom for what they never created, they would never pay again to buy a Windows licence. In order to keep costs low, they will refrain from using Windows.

Microsoft has failed to create a doomsday scenario which Brad conspires every time he posts about another forced deal. Everyone knows that companies signs deals all the time and there is nothing new about patent deal.

Microsoft has been playing this game ever since they started forcing desktop Linux players to sign deals with them thinking they will increase the cost of the Linux server and kill the competition. Look around almost everyone is using Linux nowadays, from Amazon Kindle to Sony eBook readers.

The bottom line is that Microsoft has lost the mobile war, the battle will soon reach home land -- desktop OS and Microsoft, owing to its destructive, anti-competitive business practices Microsoft will soon be the dinosaur of the IT world.

Extinct.

Source : http://www.muktware.com

[Kherr]

I enjoyed that crusty. :3