Google's fine shakes smartphone industry



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Unsurprisingly, it was via a mini-message on Twitter that Donald Trump reacted to the fine imposed Wednesday on Google by the European Commissioner for Competition. " I told you so! The European Union has just fined five billion dollars to one of our largest companies, Google. They are really trying to profit from the United States, but that will not last! ', wrote the American President in a new peak to the economic zone which he considers as a commercial' adversary ' (see page XX)

I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Billion Dollar thin on one of our great companies, Google. Truth (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

Beyond the 4.3 billion euros of sanction, Google will especially have to comply by mid-October to the rules of European competition. They forbid it to subsidize smartphone manufacturers to promote its applications (Google Search and the Play Store, in particular) and prevent the emergence of alternatives to its operating system for mobile, Android. Although the web giant has immediately announced that it is going to appeal the European decision, the new constraints that it will have to take away the hands of the manufacturers of smartphones.

Applications pre-installed

So far, Samsung, LG, Huawei and the others had to sign a contract requiring them to pre-install a dozen applications on their Android models, in exchange for the free operating system license. Their customers did not even need to download these services to benefit from them, which could have contributed to the success of Google on mobile and the 60 billion revenues it was to generate in smartphone advertising in 2018 according to calculations. by S & P Global Market Intelligence.

But now, smartphone brands could imagine to charge Google and others, for example Microsoft, this place of choice on their interfaces, even though they would be developed from Google's Android code. So has the European Commission decided.

Brussels also expects the Californian colossus to allow smartphone manufacturers to develop alternative versions of Android, based on the free (open source) part of the source code of the operating system invented by Google. Nevertheless, to seize this ball with the jump does not fall under the direction for the builders. " Manufacturers are already working very closely with Google to embed their overlay software with the Android base and I have never heard of difficulties in their relationship ," says a French professional smartphone market. [19659005] Orange Money vs. Google Wallet

On the side of telecom operators, the relative weakening of Android following the decision of the European Union could allow them to regain a foothold in the field of services. " The stake is the conquest of the customer notes Richard Toper, the CEO of Setics and end connoisseur of telecom, because when Android favors the ecosystem of Google, it disadvantages that of the operators . Thus, SFR Presse was opposed to news articles pushed directly into Android via notifications. And the money transfer service Orange Money had to convince the Google Wallet.

However, the subject Android is not the most hot for telecom operators. Faced with Google and Netflix, the problem of the cost of data transport, including video, weighs much more heavily in the discussion. And the constraints that now weigh on the giant will bring nothing to the "telcos" in the negotiation. " These are two different subjects ", says one of them.

Florian Dèbes

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