Google, antitrust and market reasons



[ad_1]

for the fine entity that the Google-Android outstanding case and takes the titles: in fact only the last of a series. It starts, Mario Monti Competition Commissioner, with the case of Microsoft-Media Player, he bundling of an application with an operating system; it follows the dispute, also plurimiliardaria, against Apple ( rectius against the Irish government); the vexata quaestio of the tax on the Web; finally, the claim to impose a tax on the turnover of Big-Tech companies. And you end up forgetting the other previous fine to Google for advertising its products.

At the time Monti said: The EU is confirmed as an economic zone where the rules are applied very rigorously (implicitly, unlike that in the United States). Recently, the Gdpr has the ambition to write rules of general validity in a mbito, that of privacy in the network, where according to many still remain a utopia. If we consider on the one hand the initiatives that have emerged in Europe (Minitel, from 1981), the resources used (in the European search engine), the number of applications as we multiply, the size of our market, bigger in the world; and, on the other hand, the fact that we have not seen anything comparable to the giants of Silicon Valley, it is hard not to think that this is due to cultural reasons, where the l l Sil,,,,, Sil Sil Sil Sil,,,, Sil envy and sense of superiority Android offers insight.

Free, perfect, immediate: not only the characteristics of digital products, according to the famous definition of Erik Brynjolfsson, are also, for the libertarian culture from which was born Silicon Valley, valuable criteria. The success of Linux was not only due to its technical characteristics, but also to the fact that it was free, public, open to the imagination and inventiveness of users and developers . To the point of reverberating a positive image even on the quality of the internal relations of the companies that had chosen it as operating system.

A similar thing happened when Google, with Android, for free, defies the absolute perfection, but closed, of Apple's iOS: and thanks to Android so the number and variety devices have multiplied, exceeding the number of smartphones apple. But while Linux was a product for developers (1.6 million in Europe only), Android for "normal" users, a billion and goes to the world, which have 24 thousand types of devices from 1300 brands different. For most of these users, pre-installed apps – mail, search, maps, weather, to name just a few – are an integral part of the smartphone, they're also comfortable so they do not have to change when they decide to 39 to buy another one. According to Google, on average each has on his smartphone 40 "usual" applications, provided by different developers, and up to 50 specifications.

on what the Commissioner of Competition Margrethe Vestager bases his accusation on Google: having since 2011 favored the use of services belonging to his ecosystem, imposing illegal restrictions on manufacturers of Android devices and operators of mobile networks to consolidate its dominant position in general Internet search. In the contracts established by Google, the Board has found obligations for the user to find the application on the new phone to browse online (Chrome primarily ) or to download from. other apps (Google Play Store), using Android as a vehicle to consolidate the domain of its search engine.

Cos Google would deny competitors the opportunity to innovate and compete on merit, and European consumers would benefit from effective competition. While in the world of the Commissioner, Android device manufacturers should be free to choose applications to pre-install, and customers to fish outside the world of Mountain View.

But it is well known that open source platforms only work well by meticulously balancing the needs of all those who use them: without clear rules on basic compatibility, there is always a risk fragmentation, with damage to producers, developers, users. The Android compatibility rules, says Google, are there to prevent this from happening and thus make the operating system reliable for all for a long time. For this reason, Google interporr call, which will be discussed in the coming months (years?).

In the case of Media Player was the market to decide: when iTunes arrives, virtually disappeared from the scene. In the case of Android, really with the greatest freedom for developers will bloom a thousand flowers? Indeed, as Valeria Falce wrote on these columns (Il Sole 24 Ore of June 19, 2018), it becomes more and more difficult for antitrust politicians to connect to market reasons: in the belief that in the end consumers have the opportunity to choose products that most agree, and producers to provide them

The maximum from the EU to Google for Android explained in 9 points

© All rights reserved

[ad_2]
Source link