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Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by cwyers on Friday June 12, 2015 @12:07AM (#9703988)
I don't disagree with the general thrust of your point here -- being an Android OEM is a thankless task, especially if you look past Samsung (who is probably wishing they had used Tizen at this point) and see everybody else.

I do think that Windows Phone is in a better position than BB, partly because they have about an order of magnitude higher market share right now, partly because Microsoft has a lot of other lines of business making money that they can throw at Windows Phone for roughly forever, and partly because they own the phone maker and the platform. In some ways, Microsoft is even better off than a lot of Android OEMs at this point. Android OEMs get to make their meager profits when the device is sold, and Google makes all the other money off the device owner for the rest of the device's lifetime -- they get the Google Play revenues for apps, they get the search ad revenues, they get to offer you other Google services on the device. Microsoft could conceivably be in the same boat -- they have the Windows app store, Bing and Office and such, so they can monetize Windows phones throughout the whole lifetime of the device. So even if their profits on devices sold are miniscule, they could still be better off in the long run than most Android OEMs.

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