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Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
(www.theverge.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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That's a really bad way to look at it if that's really what it boils down to.
They are unfortunately correct. Its the same sort of argument that got Microsoft. If they don't allow competition from the start its fine if they do and work to undermine that competition then its by definition anti competitive and monopolistic. Crazy I know.
But what exactly did they do though? Several OEMs have their own app stores (Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo etc) and they're not restricted in any way, nor is the Play Store promoted over their native app stores on those devices. Finally, you're free to download any app store (F-Droid, Aurora, Apptoide) etc on pretty much every Android phone. So what exactly is anti-competitive here?
Google actually forces it's installation if you want to use the android trademark. It'd probably be pretty hard to market "MotorolaOS"
I don't see the issue here. Is it really that bad to bundle your own apps in your own OS? Also, even though they bundle the store, it's not like they're forcing you to use it, nor is it prominently promoted over any other native stores.
I think the issue could be that it's forcing the companies to include it, even if the company can include alternatives as well or when user can just ignore it. Not a lawyer, but back when Apple was in the courts I heard social media lawyers saying that Google actually had a worse prospect because when you force your competitors (other non-google phone makers that use Android forks) to bundle G Play/Services it can be considered "tying". Then if a company just uses the GPL code without following the contractual rules like that they can't advertise Android and it it could hurt their market share.