Microsoft adds two more Android tablet makers to its patent-licensing list
Summary: Add Aluratek and Colby Electronics to the list of Android and Chrome OS tablet/PC makers who are paying MIcrosoft patent royalties. — Follow @maryjofoley — Microsoft has added yet two more companies …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft has been methodically collecting Android and Chrome OS licensees since at least September 2011, when it was already being framed as Android's patent toll collector. The run continued through ODM deals with Quanta and its tenth agreement, with Compal Electronics, and today adds two smaller consumer brands — Aluratek and Colby Electronics — to the royalty-paying roster.
The story travelled unusually wide for a two-name announcement, picked up by AllThingsD, the Seattle Times, MobileSyrup and others on the same day, which says less about these particular companies than about how closely the trade watches each new signature on Microsoft's list.
First-order effects
- Aluratek and Colby Electronics now owe Microsoft a per-device royalty on their Android and Chrome OS tablets and PCs, adding a direct cost line to hardware that runs a nominally free operating system.
- Microsoft gains two more public proof points that its Android patent portfolio is enforceable enough that even small vendors sign rather than litigate.
Second-order effects
- Every new signature raises the pressure on the remaining unlicensed Android makers, who face the choice of paying up, fighting in court, or shifting volume toward platforms without that royalty overhang — a calculus sharpened by Windows RT's October debut.
- For Google, each deal chips at Android's core pitch to OEMs of zero licensing cost, making the platform economics conversation with hardware partners harder.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, patent royalties become a structural feature of the Android ecosystem rather than an exception — effectively a private tax administered through bilateral deals that shapes which devices get built and at what margin.
- The accumulating licensee list also builds Microsoft's leverage for future negotiations across mobile and Chrome OS, turning an IP portfolio into a recurring revenue business independent of Windows sales.
The trend: Microsoft is converting Android's open-source, zero-royalty model into a per-device licensing stream one signed OEM at a time.