HTC and Apple came to an agreement about cross licensing technology and design just over a week ago. A 10-year licensing agreement was signed and both parties issued positive statements about how they could now focus on innovation rather than litigation. At the time there were no details revealed about the settlement “the terms of the settlement are confidential” said the press release. However many news sites were full of speculation, mainly suggesting that HTC would be forking out between $6 and $8 per Android phone to Apple. Today HTC chief exec Peter Chou told reporters that the speculation has been “outrageous” and that the estimates have been “baseless and very, very wrong”.
Speaking at a product launch in Tokyo, Japan today HTC’s CEO Peter Chou strongly rebuked media reports that the firm is paying between $6 and $8 per handset to Apple as part of last week’s licensing agreement. “I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong.” He continued “It is an outrageous number, but I'm not going to comment anything on a specific number.” Chou finished by declaring “I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending.”
The court cases the two companies were involved in weren’t so one sided in Apple’s favour to suggest that HTC must be a significant loser in the new 10-year agreement. Apple were suing HTC for infringing interface design elements and HTC were counter-suing with patents bought from Google and concerning LTE technology.
Further evidence that the financial impact of the Apple HTC agreement is probably much smaller than the touted $6 to $8 per handset fee comes as HTC has repeated that the settlement has no implications to its fourth quarter earnings estimates.
