Microsoft May Cut Patent Fees In Exchange for Software Pre-Installation

[dgstorm]

If this latest bit of intel is true, it would be another smart business move by Microsoft. Supposedly, the Redmond based mega-corp is courting some interesting agreements with OEMs like Samsung and others. Microsoft is supposedly offering to reduce the amount of patent licensing fees they charge for various Android-related patents in exchange for pre-installed Microsoft software on Android devices. Here's a quote with the details,

Android hardware manufacturers have all signed a patent licensing agreement with Microsoft for various essential technologies developed by the company. However, according to findings from Taiwan’s and China’s smartphone/tablet upstream supply chain, Microsoft is offering discounts to those who pre-install Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, as well as OneDrive and Skype onto their Android devices. So far, 11 hardware partners are signed up to the deal.

This seems like a win-win for both parties. The OEMs get to eke out a bit more profit from their Android devices, while Microsoft gets relatively cheap product placement.

Source: AndroidAuthority

 

[pc747]

Though I know oems and carriers are going to take them on that deal I say pass. If I want it on my phone then I will install it I do not need anyone to pre-install any apps for me.

 

[kodiak799]

Though I know oems and carriers are going to take them on that deal I say pass. If I want it on my phone then I will install it I do not need anyone to pre-install any apps for me.

But, theoretically, in a competitive market most if not all that savings is passed on to the consumer.

I only care about bloat that can't be uninstalled. Disabling isn't all that viable any more with limited storage and apps taking up over 50-100megs.

 

[pc747]

But, theoretically, in a competitive market most if not all that savings is passed on to the consumer.

I only care about bloat that can't be uninstalled. Disabling isn't all that viable any more with limited storage and apps taking up over 50-100megs.

Very good point plus we have options. Like for myself if I do not want bloat other than google apps then I have the option of a nexus. The reality is most people are not going to care because they use Microsoft software anyway. In fact it could be seen as valuable or convenient for many customers (ie business customers especially those with note devices).

 

[RyanPm40]

Yeah, I'm only okay with this if the apps are removable. I generally find Microsoft apps to be useful so I don't dislike them, but Verizon puts enough unremovable bloat on my phones as-is.

 

[Ollie]

Even if they aren't removable you can disable them. You are talking about about a minute fraction of space on your flash drive. In the world of 32, 64, and 128 GB storages what's 200-300mb?

In a perfect world everything would be a download, at the consumers choosing, from the Play Store. That doesn't look like it will ever happen though.

 

[kodiak799]

Even if they aren't removable you can disable them. You are talking about about a minute fraction of space on your flash drive. In the world of 32, 64, and 128 GB storages what's 200-300mb?

Actually it can be a big deal, because some apps and data ONLY can be stored in the apps/data partition...so 300mb becomes much more significant when your partition might only be 3gigs.

And I've got more than 128GB I'd like to put on my phone, so 300mb is a good number of pictures and music, even video.

 

[Ollie]

Actually it can be a big deal, because some apps and data ONLY can be stored in the apps/data partition...so 300mb becomes much more significant when your partition might only be 3gigs.

And I've got more than 128GB I'd like to put on my phone, so 300mb is a good number of pictures and music, even video.

Are you still constrained by the /apps partition? I didn't think OEMs were still doing that. I personally haven't seen it since the S2, but admittedly I only use Samsung. Are other OEMs still doing this like Moto, LG, Huwaei, or Sony?

 

[kodiak799]

Are you still constrained by the /apps partition? I didn't think OEMs were still doing that. I personally haven't seen it since the S2, but admittedly I only use Samsung. Are other OEMs still doing this like Moto, LG, Huwaei, or Sony?

I don't know. My Turbo is bumping up against memory limits, but I'm not sure if it's overall space or a partition (GReader doesn't auto clear it's cache, and eventually runs me out of the 3 gigs of memory I have left for it).

On my HTC Rezound it was an issue, but that's like 3.5 years old now. I thought it was an issue with external SD cards and what Google was doing with it not allowing apps to be move to external SD.

 

[Ollie]

I remember when Google did that for "security" reasons. I think it was during Jellybean. One of the releases of Kitkat re-enabled apps2sd, but I can't recall which version number.

I would prefer the phones and tablets to come with just the Play Store installed. Other than the phone application I don't use any of the stock apps that Samsung loads. The clock, email, browser, messaging apps, calendar, calculator etc are the first downloads that I make when setting up a new phone.

 

[kodiak799]

I would prefer the phones and tablets to come with just the Play Store installed./QUOTE]

It really is pretty amazing that we can buy a computer and pretty much do anything we want to it, even swapping hardware. But we can't even uninstall some apps on our phone.

 

[cr6]

Have you purchased a computer lately? They have just as much bloat (if not more) on them than smartphones. And it's a PITA uninstalling that bloat completely, because much of it is integrated into the OS. Windows 8.1 machines are a bloated mess.

S5 tap'n

 

[Ollie]

Have you purchased a computer lately? They have just as much bloat (if not more) on them than smartphones. And it's a PITA uninstalling that bloat completely, because much of it is integrated into the OS. Windows 8.1 machines are a bloated mess.

S5 tap'n

It's been a couple of years for me, but my Windows install is on a MacBook Pro so I don't get the extra stuff.

 

[kodiak799]

Have you purchased a computer lately? They have just as much bloat (if not more) on them than smartphones. And it's a PITA uninstalling that bloat completely, because much of it is integrated into the OS. Windows 8.1 machines are a bloated mess.
S5 tap'n

Windows 7, and while there was plenty of bloat it was pretty easy to uninstall everything.