HTC could pay £5 per handset sold to Apple in new agreement

HTC could pay Apple as much as £5 per Android phone sold as part of the pair's new patent deal.

Earlier today we reported Apple and HTC’s joint announcement that the two manufacturers had entered into a 10-year deal which would see the two license patents from each other.

The fine details of that deal were not disclosed, with the two parties preferring to keep things confidential.

However, Mashable is reporting that Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu claims to have heard from ‘multiple industry sources’ that the deal will see HTC pay between $6-$8 to Apple per Android handset sold.

That amounts to between £3.70 and £5 on the current exchange rate.

Wu also estimates an accumulative figure for 2013, where he expects the company to ship 30-35 million Android handsets and pay Apple $180-$280 million in the process (£113 million - £176 million).

The report mentions that this figure is similar to what HTC and other Android phone makers pay to Microsoft per handset, after patent rulings on Android features fell in the Windows Phone maker’s favour.

However, that means that between the two giants HTC will be paying a large sum in total.

Wu also suggests that the HTC-Apple agreement may form a template for future agreements between the iPhone maker and other Android manufacturers, including Google-owned Motorola and arch-rivals Samsung.