Good news!!! But I still expect Windows Phone can grow up to share more market. It is a fucking nice system.

I'm yet to see it mention in any of these articles which Microsoft owned patent Android is infringing upon. Anyone know?

This is from the Barnes & Nobes case against Microsoft in Android

I. ’372 Patent (Web Browser Background Image Loading)

The ’372 patent was filed April 18, 1996. Very generally, the patent relates to an outmoded system for retrieving an electronic document like a webpage that includes an embedded background image, which may have a bearing on very old web browsers connected to the Internet via slow, dial-up connections, but has little application in the context of improved, modern Internet connections….

II. ’522 Patent (Operating System Provided Tabs)

The ’522 patents was filed December 13, 1994. The patent relates to a single, simple tool provided by an operating system (such as Windows) that allows applications running on that operating system to have a common look and feel. Since operating systems provide many such tools, the patent amounts to nothing more than a trivial design choice. In particular, and despite the fact that this concept is in the prior art, the ’522 patent’s method allows for the creation of tabs. The tabs are analogous to dividers like those found in a notebook or to labels found in a file cabinet, and allow the user of an application to navigate between multiple pages of information in the same window by clicking on the tabs….

III. ’551 Patent (Electronic Selection with “Handles”)

On its face, the ’551 patent purports to claim priority back to a November 10, 2000 filing date. Generally, the ’551 patent relates to another simple and trivial feature that is not only disclosed by numerous prior art references, but is certainly not central to an operating system like Android — selecting or highlighting text or graphics within an electronic document. The patent provides that a user selects a word or phrase, for example, by tapping on a touch screen display or clicking with a mouse. Such a selection may be shown by highlighting the selected word or phrase. The user is presented with “selection handles” on one or both ends of the selected areas. These “selection handles” can be moved by the user to highlight more or less text or graphics….

IV. ’233 Patent (Annotation of Electronic Documents)

The ’233 patent was filed December 7, 1999. Like the other Microsoft patents, the ’233 patent relates only to one small feature that has long been present in the prior art and is not central to Android or any other operating system. More specifically, the patent generally relates to a method for capturing annotations made in an electronic document (like an electronic book), without changing the electronic document itself….

V. ’780 Patent (Web Browser Loading Status Icons)

The ’780 patent was not filed until May 6, 1997, long after the first web browser came to market. In addition to being late to the game, the patent is directed to a very simple and obvious feature — a temporary graphic element or status icon that is displayed to indicate that a hypermedia browser (such as a web browser) is loading content. When a browser is intended for use with a portable computer system with a limited display size, the ’780 patent notes that it is desirable to maximize the browser’s content display area (the portion of the browser that actually displays a website, not the menus, toolbars, or buttons). Thus, the patent makes a trivial design choice and provides that the graphic element or loading status icon is to be temporarily displayed in the content display area of the browser as opposed to a separate space such as the browser’s menu bar, tool bar, or a separate status bar….

Apple also has these patents on stuff like these.. unlike MS they just sue everyone to get it removed..

Cheers Nik - those comments really make the patents seem very innocuous. Obviously the phone manufacturer's feel like MS definitely has a case to be making these licensing deals.

Vita should of ran Android. Do you guys think it would of been possible or a smart decision? (I know it's hardly related, sorry)

I think Google would be a lot more pleased. I was just wondering since other SONY products use android, and with Vita having a touch screen an all, wouldn't it play all android games? And with the added controls on Vita wouldn't it be perfect? Or is it a lot more complicated than I think...

Nah, it would have hurt the Vita's potential and quality I think.

With Sony's own OS, they can tailor the Vita to gaming much more than they can with Android, both by not including a bunch of unnecessary features and setting some hard limitations on what can and can't be done with the device.

Including Android may have given the Vita more flexibility, but Sony have themselves said that the Vita isn't supposed to compete with smartphones for your pocket space, it's an all out gaming device instead.

OT: Hopefully this pushes manufacturers to use WP7 more.

Thanks for the info :)

just to compare, how much does ms make with a phone that is loaded is windows?

$15 from licensing I believe, and they get a share of app revenue as well.