Reports Say Android Has Earned Google Less Than $550 Million Since Launch

As a result of a settlement offer with Oracle, Google has released figures indicating that its Android operating system has made the company less than $550 million in revenues since its launch back in 2008 through 2011.

Seeing as approximately 200 million Android devices had been activated through 2011, these numbers mean that Google is making a little more than $10 per Android handset per year. Google is by no means hurting, however, as the company's total revenues for 2011 was $38 billion, due mostly to advertising on PCs. Also helping Google is the fact that its Search and Maps app on Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch generate more than four times as much revenue for Google than Android devices.

These numbers about Android revenues have surfaced due to a damages offer that Google made to Oracle as part of a settlement. Oracle claims that Android infringes patents and copyrights that it owns on the Java programming language. Oracle acquired that intellectual property when it bought Sun Microsystems, which owned Java, in 2010.

Source: The Guardian