ASUS signs patent licensing deal with Microsoft, will pre-install Office suite on its Android devices
Surfacing in news earlier today … Tweets: Dr. Roy Schestowitz / @schestowitz : Blackmailing companies, using patents, into bundling Microsoft spyware with non-standards (lock-in) is extortion. http://www.zdnet.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
ASUS's deal lands mid-run in a deliberate Microsoft campaign: within months of settling its contract dispute over Android patent payments with Samsung in February and agreeing a Kyocera cross-license in July, Microsoft signed Dell, Pegatron, and eight regional OEMs to a preinstall partnership covering Office and Skype. ASUS now joins that pipeline, paying under license and bundling Office onto its Android devices in return.
The significance is that Microsoft is monetizing its Android portfolio twice at once — as patent royalties and as distribution for its productivity suite on a rival operating system. Critics cited in the piece, including commentator Roy Schestowitz, read the patents-for-bundling trade as coercive lock-in rather than a neutral license.
First-order effects
- ASUS ships the Office suite pre-installed on its Android phones and tablets, adding Microsoft software to devices that would otherwise carry only Google's apps.
- Microsoft gains another paying licensee in an OEM roster that already spans Samsung, Kyocera, Dell, Pegatron, and eight regional partners, deepening per-device revenue from Android.
Second-order effects
- Rival Android makers face pressure to accept similar bundled terms rather than risk litigation — pressure Xiaomi yielded in June 2016 when it agreed to buy 1,500 Microsoft patents and preinstall Office and Skype across its lineup.
- Google cedes default home-screen placement on partner hardware to Office, weakening the preinstalled-app advantage that has anchored Android's out-of-box experience.
Third-order effects
- If the royalties-for-bundles pattern holds, Android effectively carries a Microsoft tax collected in cash and shelf space alike — but the corpus already hints at the exit ramp: by October 2018 Microsoft had joined the Open Invention Network, cross-licensing more than 60,000 patents with other members, suggesting the royalty regime was a bridge to patent peace rather than a permanent toll.
The trend: Microsoft spent the mid-2010s converting its Android patent portfolio from litigation leverage into a distribution channel for Office and Skype, before pivoting toward broad cross-licensing.