[cyanbane]

If Microsoft pays a patent holder for the licence to use a patent for microtransaction purchases within the windows operating system, and someone writes a windows app that utilizes the method, under this argument is it the same as long as Microsoft controls the transaction (ie we payed once, and it applies to our app makers)?

[extension]

That depends entirely on the terms of the license.

[SwellJoe]

There are several mentions of Apple servers and Apple services and Apple APIs. If Microsoft were providing all of the infrastructure for said micropayments in your hypothetical microtransactions service, then yes, it would be a comparable situation. If not, and the infrastructure is not Microsoft's, I don't see how it would be the same.