Microsoft Makes More Money from Android than Windows Phone

About a year ago, Microsoft formed a patent agreement with HTC that entitled it to royalties for all HTC Android phones. Now, it appears that deal is paying off big for Microsoft.The software giant has made five times as much from HTC Android phones as it has from its newly launched Windows Phones, according to calculations by Asymco Horace Dediu.

Dediu relied on numbers from Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, who stated that Microsoft gets $5 for every HTC Android phone made. Considering that HTC has sold around 30 million Android phones, Dediu estimates Microsoft made around $150 million through its royalty agreement with the company.

Microsoft in January said that it had sold 2 million Windows Phone 7 licenses to manufacturers, and with an estimated $15 per phone licensing fee, Dediu figures that Microsoft only made $30 million from Windows Phone last year.