Europe opens antitrust investigation into Android

Google Saga!! Part 11

The European Commission has been examining Google’s Android operating system for nearly three years, and it is now prepared both financially
and spiritually ! lol,, to launch a formal/official investigation into claims
of unfair app bundling. Google services and apps like Maps, Chrome, and YouTube
are often bundled with Android devices, and competitors have complained that
it’s giving Google an unfair and seemingly partial advantage over major
competitors.

You might love this : New Report On Android Security Finds Fewer Than 1% Of Phones Are Potentially At Risk

Three key areas of focus for Europe’s Android investigation 

Investigation will lay emphasis on whether Google has
entered into anti-competitive agreements or ill-treated a possible dominant
position in the field of operating systems, applications and services for smart
mobile devices,” says the Commission. The European Commission will focus
and put all its energy and resources on three key areas for its investigation. 

The first is whether Google has hindered the development and market
access of rival apps and services by necessitating or incentivizing smartphone
and tablet makers to exclusively pre-install Google’s own apps and services. The
Commission will also investigate whether Google has prevented smartphone and
tablet makers from creating modified versions of Android that run Google’s apps
and services. A final key area will focus on whether Google is tying or
bundling its apps and services on Android devices with other Google apps,
services, or APIs.

Google has been increasingly adapting Android and its own APIs to
bundle more of its own apps and services into the core benefit of Android,
meaning forks like Amazon’s own Fire OS do not always have access to the latest
features and changes without access to the key Google Play Services
APIs. Members of the Open Handset Alliance are forbidden from producing
Android devices based on forks of the OS, so the majority of smartphone makers
use Google’s own version. The European Commission is clearly focusing on all of
the intricacies of Google’s smartphone agreements, and the Android
investigation will run separate to the Commission’s investigation into Google’s internet search
behavior.

Google has responded to the Commission,
defending Android in a number of ways. Google prerogatives and legal claims is
that its anti-fragmentation agreements ensure apps work across all Android
devices, and app distribution agreements “make sure people get a great
‘out of the box’ experience with useful apps right there on the home
screen.”

Google’s VP of Android engineering, Hiroshi Lockheimer, strongly contends
boldly that the company’s app bundling “aids manufacturers and sequential builders
of Android devices compete with Apple, Microsoft and other mobile ecosystems
that come preloaded with comparable and similar baseline apps.”

Lastly, Lockheimer compares Google to Apple, noting that
“there are far fewer Google apps pre-installed on Android phones than
Apple apps on iOS devices.”

Based on the analysis and concrete analysis Google’s comparison to
Apple may be lawful and approximately legit, recent IDC figures show that Android dominates smartphones
shipments with 81.5 percent market share, a gigantic lead over Apple’s 14.8
percent. Together, Android and iOS made up 96.3 percent of all smartphone
shipments in 2014.

In the end  Google
representative,   VP of Android  engineer, Hiroshi Lockheimer remarked by
saying “We are appreciative of Android’s achievement, success and we
understand that with success comes scrutiny,” says Lockheimer.
“We look forward to discussing these issues in more detail with the
European Commission over the months ahead.”