Nokia has added one more smartphone manufacturer to its patent licensing kitty by inking a licensing deal with Huawei.
The deal with Huawei means that Nokia now has smartphone patent licesing deal with almost all major smartphone manufacturers out there including Apple, Samsung Electronics, LG, and Xiaomi. Neither Nokia nor Huawei revealed financial details about the deal, but Nokia said in its statement that they will start booking revenue, including and a one-off catch-up payment, from the fourth quarter.
Experts of patent licensing are of the opinion that the Huawei deal would be smaller than from Apple, which he estimated to be around EUR 250 million ($297 million) annually. Nokia could take home some EUR 100 million annually.
Analysts are of the opinion that the patent licensing deal with Huawei is going to be a huge positive for Nokia considering that it is facing tough competition in its network market. The revenue from patent licensing will help the company offset possible slump in the network business.
Nokia is currently taking home more than 90 percent of its revenue from telecoms network equipment, but the licensing payments are highly profitable.
Nokia built up its catalogue of patents in the days when the company dominated the mobile handset business. It covers technology that reduces the need for hardware components in a phone, conserves battery life and increases radio reception, among other features.