Apple is likely to be paid between $US6 and $US8 for every Android smartphone sold by HTC following a smartphone patent agreement between the companies, according to leading analysts.
Yesterday, SmartCompany reported that Apple and HTC have signed a 10-year patent cross-licensing agreement, ending all outstanding patent litigation between the two companies.
Business Insider is reporting the figure comes from Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu, based on “conversations with industry sources”.
A recent IDC report revealed HTC was the fifth largest smartphone vendor with third quarter sales of around 7.3 million units, working out to an annualised rate of around 29.2 million smartphone unit sales per year.
The settlement will mean royalty payments from HTC to Apple of between $US175.2 million at $6 per handset and $US233.6 million at $US8 per handset.
While this amount is likely to be almost entirely profit for Apple, it’s also a drop in the ocean compared to the $US41 billion net income the company reported last financial year.
The agreement with Apple comes on top of the $US5 per Android smartphone the company already pays Microsoft for licensing its patents.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
