It’s no secret that Microsoft owns a host of patents that are needed to build an Android-based smartphone or tablet, over 200 to be more precise. Thanks to a lawsuit filing that went public earlier this week, we now have an idea on the amount of revenue the company is generating from its Android and Chrome OS patent-licensing agreements. It may come as a surprise to many, but the amount of money Microsoft is making from its Android patent-licensing royalties is a lot more than what it is making from its own products.
According to the filing, Samsung alone paid Microsoft a whopping sum of one billion dollars in 2013 for a single’s year worth of patent-licensing royalties. And while Samsung is the biggest and most successful Android maker, it is one of over two dozen companies that pays Microsoft for its Android patents.
To estimate how significant this amount is to Microsoft, we should check how much money the company is generating from its other products. As Quartz reports, the money Microsoft generated from Samsung alone is more than the $848 million it made from its Entertainment and Devices Division which includes Xbox division, as well as Windows Phone and Skype.
