By Stephen Schenck | November 20, 2012 10:46 AM
Earlier this month, we told you about the latest news in the ongoing legal posturing between Apple and HTC, with word that the two companies had finally come to an understanding. Together, they signed a ten-year licensing agreement that would hopefully put an end to any further disruptive lawsuits concerning the pair. While the details of the agreement weren’t made public, that didn’t stop some analysts from commenting on the situation, and one rumor that started getting a lot of traction was the idea that HTC might have agreed to pay Apple something like six to eight dollars per phone. It turns out that the estimate may be way off-base, as now HTC CEO Peter Chou has spoken up about the rumored licensing payouts, making it clear that the actual figures are quite a bit different.
While Chou declined to get into specifics, he calls the six-to-eight-dollar estimate “outrageous”, suggesting that we’re looking at a number that’s significantly lower. Furthermore, he went on to describe the arrangement as leading to “a very, very happy settlement and a good ending”. That doesn’t give us much to go on, but maybe something in the three-to-four dollar range would be more sensible.
The question remains if we’ll see other OEMs ink similar deals to avoid Apple’s legal wrath.
