How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

Qualcomm had the right to unilaterally terminate a smartphone maker’s chip supply once the patent licensing deal expired. Qualcomm’s first weapon against competitors: patent licensing terms requiring customers to pay a royalty on every phone sold—not just phones that contained Qualcomm’s wireless chips. If another chipmaker tried to undercut Qualcomm’s chips on price, Qualcomm could easily afford to cut the price of its own chips, knowing that the customer would still be paying Qualcomm a hefty patent licensing fee on every phone.

Source: arstechnica.com