The word 'handset' is correct and commonly used in written English.
It is most commonly used to refer to a mobile phone or telephone receiver, particularly the part that is held in the hand while making or receiving calls. Example: "She reached for her handset to answer the phone call."
Handset makers generally struggle to make profit, even in China where hardly any use Google's services, instead using the open-source Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and offer (and monetise) their own maps, search and app download services.
For years, handset makers have licensed patents to each other so they can make interoperable products.
Sony Ericsson and Nokia suggested in 2008 that the amount payable per handset should be capped at less than 10% of the handset price.
China's fast-growing handset maker Xiaomi says it sold more than 26m smartphones in the first half of the year, almost four times the 7m it sold in the same period a year ago, and is on track to reach 60m handset sales by Christmas.
Organic service revenue, which ignores handset sales and newly acquired businesses, advanced by the mighty figure of 0.1% in the fourth quarter.
With billions of users yet to upgrade, that leaves lots of room for very profitable growth for the handset makers, carriers, advertisers – and anyone who gets paid when their patented technology is used in a handset.
But Guy Burkill at Three New Square, one of the UK's leading patent barristers who specialises in telecoms-related patents, says that with worldwide sales of mobiles passing 1bn units a year, "the stakes are enormous – fractions of a penny per handset are worth fighting over".
The agreement means that HTC is effectively making per-handset payments to three rivals - Apple, with which it signed a similar agreement in November 2012, Microsoft, and now Nokia.
The handset-makers have coalesced around three "ecosystems": Google's Android, Apple's iOS and, in distant third place, Microsoft's Windows.
Chen Lifang, a member of Huawei's board, said this week that although "the majority of efforts" will go into equipment, which provides the bulk of the firm's revenues and profits, "the device is very important".Nevertheless, the handset-making business is clearer now that Microsoft has swallowed Nokia, which already makes more than 80% of Windows phones.
The sudden scrutiny may thus be intended to ensure that Qualcomm asks only modest royalties of Chinese handset-makers.All of this suggests the cost of Mr Snowden's revelations has been modest.
