@ psrock
The point is that, with no information on how much revenue Google is actually making from licensing and advertising on Android devices, Android may actually end up generating more money for Google's competition than it does for Google itself. Microsoft's deal with HTC is 60% of the cost to license WinPho7, and MS didn't have to invest in any new R&D or marketing to get it.
With pending lawsuits from Oracle and Apple, and possible new lawsuits from Nokia and the Nortel patents that everybody but Google has access to, the price of "free" Android keeps going up. Android's rapid growth has been driven primarily by phone manufacturers and carriers seeking a software competitor to iOS. If MS can provide that software at a lower cost by protecting phone manufacturers from patent lawsuits, that's a serious challenge to Android.
BTW, that tablet marketshare stat you cite is based on shipments. According to Google's own activation numbers, only 1.3 million or so Android 3.x devices have been sold to customers. Apple's actual marketshare is probably still around 80%.
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