Microsoft makes three times more off patent licensing than its own mobile OS

Microsoft is really putting the screws to many companies in the Android realm with patent licensing deals that have turned out to b every lucrative. Microsoft holds several key patents and most of the key Android players are now paying Microsoft to license those patents. With the popularity of Android and the lack of popularity of Windows Phone 7, this may come as no surprise.

Microsoft makes more money off licensing its patents than it does off WP7. Not just a little more money either, Microsoft reportedly makes three times as much off licensing patents as it does WP7. Analyst Horace Dediu from ASymco claims that Microsoft makes about $15 per license for WP7 to HTC.

At the same time, it licenses the patents for Android to HTC for $5 per device and that is only one carrier. Microsoft has landed a gaggle of phone makers that are all licensing those patents and some may be paying more than HTC. For Q2 2011 Microsoft made $21 million off WP7 licensing and about $60 million from patent licensing.