As a user of Windows Mobile as far back as 2003 I am not too surprised by the fact that the majority of Android smartphone makers are paying license fees to Microsoft. My first Smartphone had an informational homescreen, easy to identify icons, a file manager and other features I appreciated which became something I looked for in my later phones, whether a Windows, Symbian or Android device. I am not sure what the Microsoft-Android licensing agreements cover, but I think a long look should be taken before branding it unfair. Microsoft does license. It does not block innovation.
While the Open Source community is all riled up about this, the question is why? Not everything has to be free.
Apple on the other hand, likes to claim that it invented the innovations which led to todays smartphones. I will let you be the judge of that. Here is a Windows CE based touchscreen phone from 2005.
Here is a review of the Neonode N1m which uses Apple gestures two years before the Apple iPhone.
Apple does not license. It does not want to compete in the open market. It want's to keep prices of technology high.
If Microsoft and HTC inked a deal, what is wrong with that? Apple, there is plenty of wrong with what they are doing.
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