You have to admire Microsoft's strategies, if any of their products have a problem, they can just throw money at it until it goes away. On a side note, I actually quite like my WP7. I have a Nokia Lumia 920 and it's the best phone I've ever used.

Wasn't Samsung already doing WP8 devices? I have a WP7 Omnia W from Samsung and it's a very nice handset, the main problem is that they can't compete with the software offerings from Nokia.

Those sums are more than waived operating licenses. You'd be surprised how good a relationship Sony has with Microsoft. Here in the UK, MS and Sony regularly co-advertise Vaio Windows laptops and stuff.

To be fair to MS, if it works, then $2.6B will definitely have been worth it. MS can't overtake android though, when manufacturers have to pay $0 to go on android. Also buy making a Win8 phone you don't have to pay patent taxes to Microsoft :)

Trying to look this up but why does Microsoft make money from licensing it Samsung, HTC, etc?  I thought Android was open sourced.  If Android infringed on a Microsoft patent wouldn't they just take Google to court? 

edit  - think I might have found part of the answer...

As George Kesarios, a financial analyst, explained in Seeking Alpha, the financial news and analysis site, "Android was developed using technology from many different companies. When patented technology is used in open-source projects, companies really don't go after them because usually they have little or no revenue. However, when an open-source project hits the jackpot, such as Google's Android, then the companies that control parts of the technology seek royalties, because these projects make money.

http://www.zdnet.com/apples-new-iphones-are-fine-but-microsoft-really-profits-from-smartphones-7000020502/

Yes, it's patents, and MS has settled a nice healthy royalty rate.

M$ is going after Google now. Before, they didn't, becuaee Google never made the hardware. Only after Google bought Motorola, that's when M$ went royalty hunting. Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, they all have deals with M$ to avoid patent lawsuits. M$ and Apple have an agreement to share patents.

Too little too late Microsoft.

The problem with Windows phone's isn't the hardware, it's the software.

Wait... if Sony creates a Windows Phone then they'll probably incorporate the much better Walkman (if it's the same as the latest apps with MU and VU) and if high-end will receive a Playstation certification and since it is Windows Phone you'll have Xbox Live and Office too. Best of both worlds possible??

I'm sure Apple has sunk substantial cash into their mobile apps, but I doubt it was $10B.

You're probably thinking of the developer payouts that Apple likes to boast about from time to time. That's just the revenues that the App Store pulls in, minus the 30% cut Apple takes for running the operation.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/07/apple-10b-in-app-store-sales-in-2013-15b-paid-out-to-developers-to-date/

Anyway, sounds like MS and Google are basically using the same strategy here: Give away the software in the hope that you can make money on services somewhere down the line.

It might have worked out for MS if they'd been able to get WinPho7 out one or two years sooner than they did, but they're stuck in also-ran position for the land grab. What they need to do now is bunker down for the long war of winning entrenched customers from rival platforms. Step one is to find a profitable niche they can defend and survive on (Enterprise users? Nokia loyalists?).

So MS bought Sony?

About time.