In step with Business Insider, Microsoft says that Android has hidden costs for cellphone manufacturers much higher than their own $15-per-unit Windows Phone 7 license. They’ve some excellent points, but others aren’t so good. These are their arguments:

Good arguments

• Manufacturers are protected from IP lawsuits, unlike Android licensees (although one may argue that Google could be helping HTC behind the curtain).
• Windows Phone 7 architecture permits easy customization, using a plug-in architecture independent of the underlying OS. Microsoft argues that Android lacks this abstraction layer, which causes manufacturers to be slow in updating their customized Android versions. This, they say, reduces cost for the OEM, who doesn’t need to re-tinker the whole lot whenever Microsoft updates their mobile OS.
• Windows Phone 7 supports automated testing. Microsoft claims that Android doesn’t, so the quality assurance phase is dearer for Android handset manufacturers.

Not-so-good arguments

• Manufacturers ought to tailor Android to their device, creating drivers for numerous components, incurring in extra development cost. Windows Phone 7 is plug and play, Microsoft says. Google can argue that manufacturers have to differentiate from each other and customization will always be needed.

• Android manufacturers should pay licenses for must-have features standard in Windows Phone 7. However, the argument isn’t very so strong because that you can argue that Microsoft Office integration is absolutely not a must-have feature. Audio and video codecs, or location services, however, are must-have features that Microsoft argues that Android handset makers deserve to license.

Bad arguments

• Android manufacturers must spend more cash to create ” user experiences” akin to Microsoft’s own Metro UI, Zune or Xbox Live . While it’s true that Windows Phone 7 has a nice user interface , Android manufacturers don’t must re-create this. They are able to happily use Google’s own or ignore some features, which can be not required for a phone to succeed.

If you buy the concept Windows Phone 7 is going to rock everyone’s socks off as a result of these features, then all of Microsoft’s arguments are good. But until that’s demonstrated, they might must convince manufacturers to pay the $15 WP7 license fee based on the nice arguments-which seem sound. [ Business Insider ]

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This post is tagged: android, costs, expensive, Hidden, phone, Windows