Posted on Wednesday, April 24 2013 @ 12:10 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
It seems it's now becoming almost impossible to buy an Android device without seeing some of your money go to Microsoft. After signing up consumer electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn last week, Microsoft
now also reached a patent licensing deal with ZTE. Details of the agreement weren't made public, but it's likely that ZTE will pay Microsoft a small fee for every product it sells with Google's Android and Chrome.
Microsoft just signed a similar deal with Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, last week. Microsoft says that 80 percent of the Android smartphones sold in the U.S. are now covered by agreements with the company, along with a majority of Android devices sold worldwide.
ZTE has already worked with Microsoft in developing Windows Phone devices such as the ZTE Render. The company also made a Windows 8 tablet, the ZTE V98, that was first announced in 2012 and was finally released in early 2013.
The two biggest holdouts in signing Android patent license deals with Microsoft are Huawei and Motorola Mobility (which is owned by Google).
