Microsoft Windows Phone, Windows RT OEM: Freebies by 2015?

Microsoft (MSFT) is kicking around the idea of giving OEM device makers Windows Phone and Windows RT for free, forgoing the licensing revenue that comes with those platforms in exchange for improving the tilt of the battlefield with Google‘s (GOOG) Android a bit more in its favor.

Google doesn’t charge device makers to license Android but instead gains revenue from ads and media sales. Is Microsoft trying to beat Google at its own game?

There are a number of other big questions for Microsoft to ask itself were it to willingly walk away from Windows Phone and Windows RT licensing revenue. Here are two more:

• Is offering free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT worth the risks for the possible—but uncertain—rewards?
• Would the freebies encourage hardware OEMs to make more Windows Phone- and Windows RT-based devices and lure developers to both platforms, or would the strategy be seen as a marketing ploy and fall flat?

According to multiple reports, Microsoft OS chief Terry Myerson currently is mulling the plan, which isn’t yet fully formed, as part of a larger rollout of updates to Windows, Windows Phone and Windows RT reportedly set for 2015, in what’s being referred to internally as the “Threshold.”

As reported by Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet, the “Threshold” next wave of Windows updates will close gaps between Windows 8.x, Windows Phone and Xbox One, a move toward a consolidated OS that Microsoft’s Devices and Studios Executive Vice President Julie Larson-Green recently hinted at in remarks at the UBS Global technology Conference.

“We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We’re not going to have three,” Larson-Green said, responding to a question on Windows RT’s future.

The Verge reported that the Windows Phone and Windows RT freebies would be timed to arrive with the Threshold updates.

To make up for lost licensing revenue from the Nokia acquisition—the Finnish device maker accounts for some 80 percent of Windows Phone-based sales—Microsoft might look to apps and devices for more revenue, perhaps urging users to SkyDrive, Office and Skype, or placing ads in Windows 8 apps, The Verge suggested.