A recent report suggested that Microsoft was considering dropping license fees on Windows Phone and Windows RT in a bid to boost their adoption by manufacturers. Should it go ahead, Microsoft would look to alternatives, including ads within apps and Bing search results and offering more subscription services, to recover the lost revenues. How much does Microsoft charge per license, you ask. It has never disclosed this information but a MyNokiaBlog source “familiar with Microsoft’s licensing scheme” has revealed this information.
If accurate, Microsoft charges US$25 per Windows Phone 8 license and US$90 per Windows RT license with one license required per device. The latter’s higher cost is at least partially explained by the inclusion of the Office suite. While that may not sound like much, it can amount to a substantial portion of a device’s cost, especially at the lower-end of the spectrum where they account for a larger portion of that cost. Needless to say, it also cuts into the profit margin of any device.
These license figures align fairly well with earlier rumours. A report just over a year ago pegged Windows RT license costs at about US$85 with volume pricing ranging between US$80 and US$95. Another almost two years ago suggested that Windows Phone licenses cost roughly between US$23 and US$31.
Dropping Windows Phone and Windows RT license costs would not only put Microsoft on par with Google which already offers Android for free but it would give manufacturers the manufacturers the ability to increase per-device profitability by keeping prices as they are or drop the price further to better compete against other devices.
If nothing else, it suggests that Microsoft still has options to support its efforts to increase Windows Phone and Windows RT adoption rates going forward.
Source : MyNokiaBlog