Vestager presented a “statement of objections”, which outlines Android’s power to steer users toward Google services like search and the Chrome browser, allegedely making it hard for competitor services to gain any type of traction.
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Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, said: “Android has helped foster a remarkable – and, importantly, sustainable – ecosystem, based on open-source software and open innovation”.
Complainant FairSearch said Google was hindering the development of versions that might lead to new operating systems able to compete with Android, despite launching it as an open source project. “It is one of my priorities to allow consumers to enjoy a wide range of innovative platforms, products and services online”, Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition chief, said Wednesday. It further adds that the partnership between smartphone manufacturers is voluntary and it is done to ensure compatibility between Android devices.
The case has dragged on since late 2010 despite three attempts to resolve the issues.
She said: “Our concern is that, by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers”. Google also revealed that it saves its users over 500 billion characters of typing each month thanks to search autocomplete.
The charge, which came after a year-long investigation, could hit a cash cow for Google, a unit of holding company Alphabet Inc: last year, the tech giant made close to 10 billion euros from ad sales on Android phones with Google apps such as Gmail and Maps.
The bright side for Google is that consumers have pretty consistently chosen its search engine and browser anyway.
If phone makers could install their own app stores instead of Google Play, that would limit revenue Google generates from selling applications.
Organizing and categorizing notes is now even easier thanks to Google Keep’s new hashtag feature. The app for Apple’s iOS platform hasn’t seen that much action, as it just launched back in September 2015. And getting permission to include those apps means playing by Google’s rules.
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In an earlier antitrust battle, Europe required Microsoft to show Windows PC buyers a “browser choice” screen that let them pick between its own Internet Explorer and other browsers. “At this stage, the Commission considers that Google is dominant in the markets for general internet search services, licensable smart mobile operating systems and app stores for the Android mobile operating system”, the European Commission said in bringing its accusation.
