I was sure that Amazon had acquired broad patent licensing from Microsoft vis-a-vis their use of Linux in general, but interestingly those licenses apparently DO NOT cover Android [1], which of course includes the Kindle Fire. it will be interesting to see how that turns out, but I would guess that if they already licensed X they'll be much more amenable to licensing Y from MS.
You should add Google to the bottom of that list. Google releases one smartphone every year, and so far they did not sign any patent deal with Microsoft.
Google might have the hardware manufactured by other companies, but I think Google ends up as the producer of each Nexus device.
They completely design the software experience, they at least co-design the hardware, they sell the devices, and they are the one's supporting and updating them.
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I'm keeping the score.
I was sure that Amazon had acquired broad patent licensing from Microsoft vis-a-vis their use of Linux in general, but interestingly those licenses apparently DO NOT cover Android [1], which of course includes the Kindle Fire. it will be interesting to see how that turns out, but I would guess that if they already licensed X they'll be much more amenable to licensing Y from MS.
[1] http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/09/30/kindle.fire.is...
You should add Google to the bottom of that list. Google releases one smartphone every year, and so far they did not sign any patent deal with Microsoft.
Every Google phone (G1,Nexus,Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus) was made with a hardware manufacturer (HTC, Samsung, etc). - why add Google to that list?
Google might have the hardware manufactured by other companies, but I think Google ends up as the producer of each Nexus device.
They completely design the software experience, they at least co-design the hardware, they sell the devices, and they are the one's supporting and updating them.