“Apple could theoretically end up paying $21 or more per phone to cover licensing fees from 5G-related patents for future iPhones, in large part because of Qualcomm,” Roger Fingas reports for AppleInsider.
“Nokia on Wednesday announced a flat, 3 euro ($3.48) per-device licensing fee for its 5G standards-essential patents, according to VentureBeat. That contrasts with Ericsson, which is charging on a sliding scale between $2.50 and $5 based on the cost of a device,” Fingas reports. “Qualcomm, however, is licensing its 5G patents at 2.275 percent of a single-mode phone’s total price, and 3.25 percent for multi-mode phones, albeit with a $400 price cap.”
“A modern smartphone could potentially be saddled with over $21 in combined royalty payments,” Fingas reports. “Around $13 will go to Qualcomm regardless of any current spats.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nokia survives!
It will not cost Apple anything. The customer will be paying for it, just like all of the other components of the iPhone.
Sounds like Intel 5G chips are DOA.
Why doesn’t Apple just buy Qualcomm?
because Qualcom is rich and independent, therefore not for Sale. BAH HUMBUG
Because if Apple wins in court, they won’t have to pay out for an otherwise valueless company and it would also saw off one leg of their legal arguments about Qualcomm’s behaviour.
Can someone enlighten me as to why exactly does FRAND exist if not to forbid licensing abuses ie QC? This is baffling to me. If the standards license was issued on the basis of FRAND participation, does that not implicitly prohibit this behavior?
The rich always have a backdoor….
I thought that the whole idea of a Standards Organization and FRAND was to enable interoperability of commercial products and simplify licensing. A company obtains the advantage of “standards-essential patent” status as part of an important commercial product standard, such as 5G, and other companies are guaranteed licensing of those patents under FRAND conditions to support the development and marketing of products.
Shouldn’t the governing body step in to help define the boundaries of FRAND? What is fair and reasonable? Why is Qualcomm allowed to charge up to 2.6x Ericsson’s maximum fee and up to 3.7x Nokia’s flat fee? Are Qualcomm’s patent contributions so much more important and valuable than the others? If not, then Qualcomm’s patents should not be adopted into a standard unless the company satisfies the fair and reasonable aspects of FRAND.
“Qualcomm, however, is licensing its 5G patents at 2.275 percent of a single-mode phone’s total price, and 3.25 percent for multi-mode phones, albeit with a $400 price cap.”
Nokia: flat, 3 euro ($3.48) per-device licensing fee
Ericsson: sliding scale between $2.50 and $5 based on the cost of a device
Qualcomm: up to $13 for a multimode device with a price of $400+ (3.25% of $400)
As MDN points out, the 5G licensing fee total is over $21 ($21.48) for a higher-end phone. That translates to many billions in fees for worldwide sales.