[ad_1]
In short: Google has begun to take concrete steps to comply with the antitrust order issued by the European Commission this summer, alleging that the US tech giant had abused the dominance of its Android operating system so promote its mobile applications and services at the expense of competing solutions. Although the company owned by Alphabet has recently filed a complaint against the decision, it is now reluctantly proceeding with certain changes to prevent what the EC considers to be anti-competitive behavior in the future.
Starting October 29, original equipment makers interested in Android could now do so without losing their ability to pre-load such gadgets with Google-designed apps such as Chrome and the Play Store itself. The so-called Android forks will never be barred from accessing any of these applications within the European Economic Area, even though Google will not actively develop its software for such platforms, which means that their performance could always be inconsistent. Google also separates its Chrome and Search licenses from the main Android, mainly for the same reasons, and will also license the application suite packages separately from the operating system. While these will remain free, OEMs who want to install devices with Android applications developed by Google in the EU will now have to pay license fees. The change is only for smartphones and tablets, while Android TV and other OS-based platforms will continue to use the freemium model, given that they have not done so. object of the antitrust decision of the EC.
Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's vice president of Platforms & Ecosystems, said the development was not in line with the company's vision for the future of Android in clear terms. "The pre-installation of Google Search and Chrome as well as our other apps has allowed us to fund the development and free distribution of Android," wrote the industry veteran in a blog on Tuesday. Lockheimer said Android would remain an open-source, open-source project, both in the EU and in other parts of the world. The recently announced changes will not affect Android smartphones and tablets released before October 29th.
Context: The EC competition watchdog hit Google with the biggest fine ever imposed on the Old Continent for antitrust behavior last July, ordering it to pay the equivalent of more than $ 5 billion for abusing the domination of its operating system for the benefit of its applications. The announcement Tuesday of the announcement of the first compliance efforts of the company by Google is not a coincidence if the EC gave him 90 days to do so or incur additional fines, the deadline expires tomorrow, October 18.
The antitrust announcement imposed by Android comes a little over a year after Google has already broken the record of the largest fine imposed by the competition, after being sanctioned for $ 2.7 billion for abuse of the popularity of its search engine to promote its shopping service. Just as in the case of Android, Google appealed the decision and began to reluctantly implement changes in compliance, arguing that the interconnected nature of its services was supposed to benefit consumers and not its customers. competitors. A number of leading companies such as Yelp have already rejected this idea, calling it misleading and futile, welcoming the EC decision.
This summer, Mr. Lockheimer and many other Google executives argued that Android's goal was to promote competition from the first day, highlighting the constant innovation and aggressive pricing of Android devices as proof of the success of this strategy. However, this point is largely theoretical because the EC has never claimed that Google stifles device innovation, but competition in the application market. According to most estimates, Android accounts for nearly 90% of the global mobile phone market. Google has stated that it has never prevented OEMs from preinstalling rival applications on their devices, claiming that its licensing offerings allowed Android to remain free and open source for more than ten years. The company also tried to argue that it did not have a monopoly on mobile because of the presence of iOS, but had not advanced as much. Apple did not give up the license of its operating system to another brand and held a relatively minor share of the global smartphone market. iPhones, especially outside the United States.
Impact: Consumers will not feel any immediate effect from Google's changes, but they are important because of their implications for the future of the Android ecosystem as a whole. For example. nothing prevents Amazon from now pre-loading the Google Play Store and other basic Android apps on its Kindle devices sold in the European Union while using a heavily modified version of the ubiquitous operating system. However, only the largest manufacturers can take advantage of it, given that Google's Android applications will now cost money to those looking to preload them on their devices in Europe.
At the same time, some of the major manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei could be among the first to give up the majority of Google applications of their products sold in the EU, considering that they have already already invested Huge resources in the development of alternatives. and they could choose to use all the tools at their disposal to promote them more aggressively now that they are able to bypass a significant portion of Google's mobile wallet. The effects of the new development must therefore be felt as of the end of the year holidays. Some major versions of 2019, such as the Galaxy S10, are likely to lack many ready-to-use Google apps, forcing consumers to download them from the Play Store or other sources themselves if they want to use them.
As for Google, the company's call will probably take years to resolve. For example. Intel is still struggling with its $ 1.2 billion fine imposed by European regulators for its anticompetitive behavior in 2009 and the Alphabet subsidiary will surely seek to exhaust all its legal options before paying anything. At the same time, the supervisory body of competition on the Old Continent is currently studying the potential abusive society for the dominance of its advertising network, this survey to be completed in the coming months. Most industry observers agree that the investigation will lead to a third fine, leaving Google a heavy legal headache. Regardless of current developments, Google's anti-competitive practices have already achieved the desired goal: the company currently dominates a wide range of mobile application genres, such as Internet search, navigation, and email.
Source link
