Record good by the European Commission: Google's dominance will not last forever – economy

Some will remember the various procedures that the EU has been conducting against Microsoft since the 2000s. It imposed heavy penalties because the American company had preinstalled Internet Explorer on Windows and thus disadvantaged other Internet browsers.

In the meantime, power relations have changed: In the Internet search sees Microsoft Bing against Google no jot, even more clearly ran it into the operating system for smartphones: Since Microsoft has now completely abandoned its Windows Mobile. The competition of Apple and Google was finally too strong. The mobile operating system of Google Android currently operates 2.2 billion devices worldwide, accounting for a market share of more than 80%.

The rules of fair competition were ignored

This domination again called the EU on the scene. With 4.3 billion euros, she imposed a record fine. The charge: Google has abused its power and reinforced by unacceptable specifications. For example, the company asked cell phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and their own Chrome browser. Now Google needs to allow more competition. For the second time, the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, shows its limits to the US company and states that it must respect the rules of fair competition.

The decision is good and fair. It is likely to please those who are afraid of the growing power of Google (but also other internet platforms) anyway. The demand for a break from the tech giants is ringing more and more often. However, Vestager was skeptical about this scenario. In fact, the Android example just shows why a break would go too far. Because Google has indeed secured its own position with its practices and forced their expansion, but in essence, the success of a smart business strategy. The Group recognized earlier than others that mobile devices are ahead of desktop computers and laptops in the use of the Internet and respond with the development of Android.

Answer questions and take part in the action "Germany Speaks"

Nokia could have been saved

Microsoft surpbaded this revolution and knew how to dominate the Traditional operating systems do not record the age of mobile devices. Since the subsequent purchase of Nokia has not helped anything further, because the former leader of the mobile market had long lost his lead.

Incidentally, a major factor in the decline of Nokia was also the enduring membership to its own mobile operating system and subsequent cooperation with Microsoft. For both, there simply was not enough applications. This is why the devices do not arrive at the customers. An early move to Android, however, Nokia could still be able to save.

Application developers want to achieve a large market share

However, the availability of popular applications is one of the key success criteria for smartphones. It was also much more relevant to the rise of Android than the practices currently being criticized by the EU. For application developers, it is simply too long to adapt the programs to different operating systems. Competitors like Microsoft have failed less because of Google's elbow policy, but much more because of the clbadic chicken and egg problem: as their market share was too small, it was not worth the trouble developing applications.

But this recent history of technology also shows that Google's dominance will not last forever. In addition, EU sanctions are likely to contribute less than the market. This has already been demonstrated by the example of social networks, where Facebook has created a new rival. Google tried to counter with its own network and used all its power to push Google Plus into the market. Google users have been forced into a profile, but this abuse of power has not been used, Google Plus is not important today.