Microsoft might have ambitions to supersede Google at the top of the smartphone tree, but according to numbers published by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, Android generates more cash for the firm than Windows Phone.

Said revenue is reportedly the result of a patent settlement with HTC, which sees the firm pay Microsoft $5 for every Android device it manufacturers.

Pritchard believes HTC has paid a total of $150 million to Microsoft, making the agreement more lucrative to the firm than its entire Windows Phone business, excluding Marketplace revenues.

Paying the patent price

That's based on figures calculated by mobile industry advisory firm asymco, which claims that, based on an estimated fee of $15 per device, Microsoft has made around $30 million from Windows Phone licenses to date.

If true, it means Microsoft has received five more times income from Google's platform than it has its own.

"Looking forward and assuming that Microsoft can receive this type of settlement from about half of the Android license takers, then the prospects of a windfall from Android dwarf the expected income from Windows Phone," asymco founder Horace Dediu says on the organisation's blog.

"Google's Android seems the best thing that could have happened to Microsoft’s mobile efforts, ever."

It might not end there, either. According to Business Insider, Microsoft is in the process of suing other Android OEMs, looking to settle for $7.50 to $12.50 per device.

Said money could well end up being pumped straight back into Windows Phone, enabling the platform to make ground on the OS that, as things stand, outperforms it on Microsoft's balance sheet.

[source: asymco]