To use the example cited in the article, 5% licensing / royalty on the total cost on the phone may or may not be fair depending on the phone.

5% on a $500 phone is $25

5% on a $50 phone is $2.50

Switching to a fixed $25 fee makes it 50% on a $50 phone.

On phones of yore, even “smartphones” in the early-mid 2000s, the radio was still arguably one of the most important / expensive components. This may just be bias on my part on how terrible I thought Nokia and Blackberry smartphones (typically around $500 RRP) were though. My loathing of J2ME knows no bounds.