The company is receiving money from Android phone makers as well

Jan 19, 2012 15:29 GMT  ·  By

Windows Phone might not enjoy great market share in the smartphone segment, but the platform is still profitable, at least to Microsoft.

The same as with many other products, Microsoft chose to adopt a licensing model with Windows Phone, and this has paid off, it appears.

Chinese handset vendor ZTE, one of the company’s new Windows Phone partners, has confirmed today that it is paying £15-20 to Microsoft for each of its devices, TrustedReviews notes. This amount translates in around 18 to 24 Euros per device, or $23 to $30.

Portfolio Manager for ZTE UK, Santiago Sierra, was the one to unveil this, during the official launch of ZTE’s Windows Phone Tania in the UK.

According to him, the Chinese manufacturer planned on making its Windows Phone devices cheaper than they already were, but the fee it had to pay to Microsoft for each handset prevented it from doing so.

Clearly, the partnership agreements that Microsoft has signed with other handset makers for the release of Windows Phone devices might be different.

For example, Nokia is one of the companies that have a special relationship with Microsoft. The Finnish handset vendor announced last year that it was adopting Windows Phone as its primary smartphone OS.

At that time, we learned that it was bringing some of its services and expertise in the smartphone area to Windows Phone, and that Microsoft was the one to pay for that.

It should also be noted that Windows Phone is not the only mobile operating system that Microsoft makes money of.

The Redmond-based software giant has signed a series of patent agreements with makers of Android-based devices as well, covering over 70 percent of all Android handsets.

Android is open source and free to put on devices, but vendors interested in the platform have to pay Microsoft to do so, the same as those who make Windows Phones do.