Microsoft drops licensing fee on Windows Phone for some providers

It looks like desperate times call for desperate measures, Microsoft has approached two Indian manufacturers, Karbonn and Lava, to make low-cost Windows Phone and has dropped the licensing cost to sweeten the deal.

This is the first time Microsoft has budged on a licensing fee and shows how unsuccessful Windows Phone has been in comparison to Android, both in the high and low-end market.

We are not sure if Microsoft will drop the licensing fee for all providers, right now Karbonn and Lava appear to the only ones getting the special treatment, along with Nokia now that they are part of Microsoft.

It looks like the company wants Windows Phone to dominate more in the low-end rather against Samsung and Apple in the high-end, even if those types of phones have lower profit margins.

This is where Windows Phone is shining right now, in the low-end the Nokia Lumia 520 and 521 have both achieved quite a lot of success, but phones from Xiaomi and Indian companies like Karbonn running Android are leading the way.

Karbonn has previously been in the news for trying to dual-boot Windows Phone on an Android device. Microsoft will apparently allow the Indian company to go through with this project and it could lead to more Windows Phone’s in lower-end markets.

We doubt any high-end manufacturers will begin adding Windows Phone onto Android, although it is not an impossible thing to suggest, considering the amount of dual-boot tablets and PCs running Android and Windows 8.

Microsoft will also be cutting fees for the desktop version of Windows 8.1 to entice more manufacturers and previous partners to develop devices. This is a big move by Microsoft, cutting out what was once one of their most profitable businesses back in the times of Windows XP.

Things have moved on since then, Android and Chrome OS are now available for free and Apple recently announced Mavericks OS for free.