Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s largest contract notebook PC maker, has signed a patent licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp, in which it would pay royalties to the software giant when it produces tablets, smartphones or other consumer devices running Android or Chrome platforms.
Microsoft made the announcement on Friday in a statement, without revealing the licensing fee.
That means Quanta is following in the footsteps of other Taiwanese hardware makers, such as HTC Corp (宏達電), Wistron Corp (緯創) and Acer Inc (宏碁), South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and the US’ ViewSonic and Velocity Micro Inc, as well as Japan’s Onkyo Corp, in paying royalties to Microsoft to use the two open platforms developed by Google Inc.
According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times, Quanta is the contract maker of the PlayBook from Research In Motion Ltd and the Kindle Fire from Amazon, and has to pay royalties for both.
The paper cited industry estimates that Microsoft will make between NT$500 million (US$16.5 million) and NT$1 billion in royalties from Quanta this year based on the expected combined shipments of 6 million units of the PlayBook and Kindle Fire.
The calculation was derived from HTC’s reportedly paying between US$2 and US$5 per Android smartphone to Microsoft, the paper said.
Since Microsoft launched its intellectual property (IP) licensing program in December 2003, the company has inked more than 700 licensing agreements.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Quanta, and proud of the continued success of our Android licensing program in resolving IP issues -surrounding Android and Chrome devices in the marketplace,” Microsoft Intellectual Property Group vice president and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in the statement.
HTC, the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, in April last year said it would pay Microsoft to license a series of patents that cover technology in HTC cellphones that use Google’s popular Android operating system.
Microsoft has declined to say which of its patents are relevant to Android and Chrome.
According to IDG News, some analysts have speculated that Microsoft is potentially earning more revenue through licensing to Android smartphone makers than it is through licensing its Windows Phone operating system.
That is because IDG projected Android to have a 39.5 percent of the smartphone operating system market share this year, compared with 5.5 percent for Windows Phone.
Microsoft, which says that Android infringes its patents, is suing Motorola Mobility and Barnes & Noble, the maker of Nook e--readers, on the IP violation issue.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS