Nearly 200 patent families for the creation of Android devices are held by Microsoft. Android OEM’s are need to pay for the licensing of these patents from Redmond in order to avoid lawsuits. Several Android manufacturers have already paid up, namely, HTC, LG, ZTE and Samsung. Motorola Solutions has now closed a deal to license these patents as it creates devices based on the Android platform.
After Google’s acquisition of its consumer devices operation in 2011, Motorola solutions focused on the manufacture of enterprise mobile devices. Amongst these are wearables and handsets for public safety agencies. Microsoft rakes in big profits from Android licensing fees which is bundled along with its OS licensing and MS Office revenues.
