Microsoft Paid Nokia $250 Million for Promoting WP Devices

So you thought that Nokia was so kind as to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS on its glossy Finnish smartphones just for fun? How about the fact that Microsoft had actually paid Nokia to nearly ditch its native Symbian OS and start using WP? Turns out Microsoft had paid Nokia $250 million for the Q4 alone to strike this deal. The two companies always refuse to disclose any figures announcing only that Nokia will receive “significant investments.”

The number disclosed will not be the final one, but let’s not assume at one that Microsoft did nothing else than “bribe” Nokia to use WP OS. This was an agreement, which was mutually beneficial. Nokia announced, “Our broad strategic agreement with Microsoft includes platform support payments from Microsoft to us as well as software royalty payments from us to Microsoft. We have a competitive software royalty structure, which includes minimum software royalty commitments.” So this means after getting the go to use the WP OS, Nokia in its turn will start paying Microsoft royalties for each Nokia unit with WP. This seems to be fair.

Though the exact figure of royalties to be paid is not clear, it is known that it will be significantly less than what HTC and Samsung are paying Microsoft for using WP on their handsets.

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