$8-15 For Licensing Is Not Much When You Consider What You’re Getting
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
There was quite a big uproar yesterday where many blogs made fun of Microsoft’s decision to keep it’s licensing fee, especially when other companies like Google (Android) and Nokia (Symbian) are now free and open-source.
My initial impression was that, hey, it’s only $15 at most. And Windows Mobile devices sell for a lot more than that. I highly doubt that a user would choose a non-Windows phone if it was $15 cheaper. Wmpoweruser and pocketnow.com have gone a step further and they listed what you get for that $15:
and device policy management.
and Exchange server search capabilities
messages, emails
That sure is a lot of features thrown in and while I don’t agree entirely with the list (like Windows Live Search which is also available to other platforms for free), I think they make a rather valid point: With Microsoft charging the licensing fee, you get the business features you need (like Exchange and Mobile Office), all in one package.
So do you still think that Microsoft should be chided for its decision?
Related posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Yeah, but with a Symbian phone you get nearly all of this for free! And a BT stack that is better than “pretty good”
Don’t get me wrong. I really like my Tilt and am looking forward to a Fuze come month’s end. But I had a P910a once upon a time and, while Sony Ericsson and UIQ have definitely lost the plot, it was a better phone - in 2005 - than my Tilt is now in terms of stability and ease of use.
I do agree that Symbian had a much better BT stack and Exchange support but there’s one slight difference. I guess when they were comparing, they were only looking at Apple and Adroid (I could be wrong though).
Tariq,
Don’t miss my point - and I hope that I haven’t mislead…
All things being equal - and, certainly, they very nearly are, $15 more in costs for a handset to ATT is a lot of $$$$$. I guess that they can jack up the price of the phone by $15. But, I expect that’s a pretty big piece of the potential profit pie for HTC and other WM licensees.