It’s been revealed that amidst Nokia’s attempt to get back on top by investing in the Windows Phone 7 platform its revenue stream counts Apple as a major contributor. As with Microsoft and Google, to whom Apple also pays significant amounts of money to license the ideas that run the iPhone, payments made by Apple for licensing deals and settlements for claims of patent infringement have added more income to Nokia’s bottom line than sales of the Lumia series handsets.

Nokia actually lost money selling mobile devices over the last quarter, resulting in a $1.7 billion overall loss despite the launch of a variety of new Lumia devices.
After a troubling first quarter one year ago resulted in sales of 108.5 million mobile devices, the company only managed to sell 82.7 million units over the past quarter, a decline of 24 percent
However, Nokia was able to rake in around $600 million from Apple to settle a patent licensing dispute involving a variety of standards essential patents, according to a source familiar with the terms of the deal.

AppleInsider published this chart from Nokia’s interim earnings report showing year-on-year volumes from the handset maker.

Source: AppleInsider