NEWS: Google: Phone Makers Must Pay For Google’s Apps

EU should make car manufcturers offer a choice of other manufacturers engines, seats, wheels etc. It's un-competetive to sell cars where all components are by the same munufacturer.
 
This happened to Microsoft with IE and now Google. Apple seem to be OK supplying their software on their devices though?

I don't see the issue, Phones came with Android and with Google Apps. This was free so keeps prices down for end users. Who can install any other browser/search engine from the Google Play store. Its not like they were blocking competitors in the store.

So now we are going to get a phone with just the Play store and we get to pick our apps? Which 99% will just pick Google again. How is this helping users at all.

Typical business practices now. One company does well, the rest cry its not fair, and complain.

Maybe they should release a better product instead.
 
I wonder what the license fee will be?

Maybe 1 Euro? :laugh:

I guess what I'm wondering is if Google charge (even a token price), it will be difficult in future to argue anti competition.
 
Interesting, so can manufacturers still use android/play store and not pay for google apps (and therefore not have them on their phones?)

Until now, as I understand it google has forced their apps on phones for access to the play store.
 
This happened to Microsoft with IE and now Google. Apple seem to be OK supplying their software on their devices though?
EU competition law in part is about preventing abuse of a dominant market position and creating a monopoly. Google dominate online searches and advertising and Chrome has large market share.

Safari does not.
 
EU competition law in part is about preventing abuse of a dominant market position and creating a monopoly. Google dominate online searches and advertising and Chrome has large market share.

Safari does not.

Mobile browser usage

UK Safari 47% Chrome 43%
USA Safari 51% Chrome 42%
 
Mobile browser usage

UK Safari 47% Chrome 43%
USA Safari 51% Chrome 42%
No citation at all but ok yeah my post was wrong about browser market share. So are you offering an opinion about whether or not bundling Google apps on Android does or does not mean Google are manipulating the market?
 
No citation at all but ok yeah my post was wrong about browser market share. So are you offering an opinion about whether or not bundling Google apps on Android does or does not mean Google are manipulating the market?

They do, but odd they also don't go after Apple with the same rules, especially as iOS is locked down a lot more than Android in terms apps etc.

I agree that browsers and search should be open, and one change that would be most welcome is the ability to completely remove (and replace) browsers such as Chrome or Safari, even if this removal is just actually hiding the app.

Will be interesting to see this in practice and what technical changed follow.
 
Google search is the most used because it is clearly the best. I remember somebody that used to work for Google created another search engine and never went anywhere. Searching with Bing it is like the proverbial needle in the haystack.

If we are going to stop manufacturer from including their own applications then we will have to ban all of them. Samsung keeps including all sort of stuff that are pure s... some are very good. I have no problem for them to include those apps by default. A significant change would be to be able to fully uninstall it without having to root the phone or affecting the functionality.
 
As no one outside of South Korea seems to like Samsung apps it unfortunately means the EU are unlikely to ban Samsung pre-installed apps!
They do, but odd they also don't go after Apple with the same rules, especially as iOS is locked down a lot more than Android in terms apps etc.
iOS may be locked down but what is the market share of Siri and other Apple systems. Is Facebook and Apple enough to prevent Google being in a dominant position

I have not read into it, but presumably it matters to the EU that Google pays Apple for Google to be the default search engine
 
As no one outside of South Korea seems to like Samsung apps it unfortunately means the EU are unlikely to ban Samsung pre-installed apps!

iOS may be locked down but what is the market share of Siri and other Apple systems. Is Facebook and Apple enough to prevent Google being in a dominant position

I have not read into it, but presumably it matters to the EU that Google pays Apple for Google to be the default search engine

This was answered above.. Mobile browser usage...

UK Safari 47% Chrome 43%
USA Safari 51% Chrome 42%

So if Google is paying Apple for making google the default search engine, why isn't the EU asking Apple to address this on iOS? i.e. force Apple to make changes to it's platform to allow alternative search engines? It seems to me, Apple doesn't have a search engine, but is happy to take the cash from Google, so Apple are also part of the problem (and solution)
 
To me it smacks of the EU looking for ways to penalise a successful American company. I bet they wouldn't be so concerned if Android was a European creation.

Totally agree with an earlier post; these days companies don't have to make a good product to compete; they just whinge to the courts about someone else's better product in the hope of getting it reigned in. There's a clear reason why people use Google; it works.

And yes, once again Apple somehow avoids similar action even though their eco-system is one of virtually no choice at all. You buy Apple, you do things their way. I wonder what phones most eurocrats use...
 
This was answered above.. Mobile browser usage...

UK Safari 47% Chrome 43%
USA Safari 51% Chrome 42%

So if Google is paying Apple for making google the default search engine, why isn't the EU asking Apple to address this on iOS? i.e. force Apple to make changes to it's platform to allow alternative search engines? It seems to me, Apple doesn't have a search engine, but is happy to take the cash from Google, so Apple are also part of the problem (and solution)
Apple / Safari does offer alternative search engines, they offer Google, Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo
 
Apple / Safari does offer alternative search engines, they offer Google, Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo
I wasn't aware of that, so now I don't understand Steven's point!

The bottom line is that these companies should be treated the same and in both cases, they shouldn't be allowed to close down the platform for their own benefit, especially when both of these companies are in such a dominant position.

i.e. Apple's net worth is actually x4 more than Google, so from those facts, which is most dominant?

And again, Android allows the installation of alternative "app stores", where as Apple doesn't. e.g. you can install the Amazon App store on Android, can you do this on iOS? And is the app Store on iOS a huge revenue earner and is this unfair competition?

It's like buying a car from Tesco's and only being allowed to purchase Tesco petrol!
 
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No citation at all but ok yeah my post was wrong about browser market share. So are you offering an opinion about whether or not bundling Google apps on Android does or does not mean Google are manipulating the market?

No more than Apple I would say. In fact, where as android has alternatives, apple pretty much locks you into iTunes if you want to copy your own music to you iPhone and play it.(correct me if I have this wrong, I read it somewher recently but can't remember where).
 
There are third party music apps that allow music playback on iOS devices. This normally means when connected to iTunes on the computer dragging music into the app. But yes, still tethered to iTunes on the computer
I wasn't aware of that, so now I don't understand Steven's point!
Google pay Apple to be the default search engine. The user can still change the search engine
 
I wasn't aware of that, so now I don't understand Steven's point!

The bottom line is that these companies should be treated the same and in both cases, they shouldn't be allowed to close down the platform for their own benefit, especially when both of these companies are in such a dominant position.

i.e. Apple's net worth is actually x4 more than Google, so from those facts, which is most dominant?

And again, Android allows the installation of alternative "app stores", where as Apple doesn't. e.g. you can install the Amazon App store on Android, can you do this on iOS? And is the app Store on iOS a huge revenue earner and is this unfair competition?

It's like buying a car from Tesco's and only being allowed to purchase Tesco petrol!

If you have 50 phones makers using android they have to install certain Google products like Gmail or Chrome etc. The problem is Goggle are forcing them to do it rather than have them install alternative default apps. That's why Samsung phones tend to have duplicate apps. That's the issue they had with Windows, because IE was installed on PC's it meant most people wouldn't install another browser therefore killing off competition.

Apple is different as no one else is making iPhones so they are not forcing anyone to install their apps.

Hope I explained this well. Ultimately most people will just install Google apps anyway.
 
If you have 50 phones makers using android they have to install certain Google products like Gmail or Chrome etc. The problem is Goggle are forcing them to do it rather than have them install alternative default apps. That's why Samsung phones tend to have duplicate apps. That's the issue they had with Windows, because IE was installed on PC's it meant most people wouldn't install another browser therefore killing off competition.

Apple is different as no one else is making iPhones so they are not forcing anyone to install their apps.

Hope I explained this well. Ultimately most people will just install Google apps anyway.

It is no different. It doesn't matter that no one else are making iPhones, this is about blocking out competition on their platform.
e.g.
A lawsuit that claims Apple is anticompetitive is heading to the Supreme Court
FTC's Apple Music investigation focuses on anti-competitive practices
Apple probed in Japan for anti-competitive moves against Yahoo game platform
Apple also deserves an EU fine for its anti competitive practices, like Google - Blog | Knowband
 
If you have 50 phones makers using android they have to install certain Google products like Gmail or Chrome etc. The problem is Goggle are forcing them to do it rather than have them install alternative default apps. That's why Samsung phones tend to have duplicate apps. That's the issue they had with Windows, because IE was installed on PC's it meant most people wouldn't install another browser therefore killing off competition.

Apple is different as no one else is making iPhones so they are not forcing anyone to install their apps.

Hope I explained this well. Ultimately most people will just install Google apps anyway.

It is no different. It doesn't matter that no one else are making iPhones, this is about blocking out competition on their platform.
e.g.
A lawsuit that claims Apple is anticompetitive is heading to the Supreme Court
FTC's Apple Music investigation focuses on anti-competitive practices
Apple probed in Japan for anti-competitive moves against Yahoo game platform
Apple also deserves an EU fine for its anti competitive practices, like Google - Blog | Knowband
 
You've gone off on a different tangent from what the OP posted which was about Android manufacturers.

Read the last article..

Apple also deserves an EU fine for its anti-competitive practices, like Google
Apple also deserves an EU fine for its anti competitive practices, like Google - Blog | Knowband

Google haven't stated how much they'll charge for the licensing, but I assume this is about manufacturers choosing Google rather than Google being accused of forcing the software on them.
I'm sure this is more about the lawyers looking at the case and making sure they can't be accused of this again, rather than making money off the licensing.

But the article above (and other articles linked) are about the fact that Apple appears to get away with it but Google doesn't (at least in the EU)
 
Again, Apple are not in the search business.

Neither are Apple yet in the dominant position of when Microsoft were scrutinised over IE bundling
 
More to the point, wonder who's back pockets the 3.8 billion euros will go into? :)
 

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