Just yesterday, Google was accused guilty of anti-trust laws in Russia. According to reports, Google's violation is due to its mandatory applications that come pre-installed on Android devices. This isn't the first time we're hearing about this violation.
Google's mobile operating system Android has become by far the most popular mobile OS on the planet. Reportedly, Google has been accused of abusing its market position by forcing manufacturers to pre-insall some its core applications. As most of you know, in return of Google's openness to let any manufacturers create their own Android device, Google requires most OEM's to pre-load some its applications. After all, a large sum of Google's profits come through advertising in these applications.
According to WSJ, Google will receive a fine from Russia for its actions and may be forced to make a settlement on what's permitted in the territory. In other words, Russian Android users might get the Google bloatware cut down they've been wanting. But this is not good for Google. In contrast, most Android users don't see Google's pre-installed apps as bloatware as the majority of people actually use them.
What are your thoughts?
Via: Wall Street Journal
I don’t think saying “Google requires OEM’s to pre-load some its applications.” is correct. Amazon devices run on android, yet they don’t have Google apps installed…
Google only inserts stipulations on Android usage if OEM’s want their devices to use the Play Store or apps suite, don’t they? And that makes complete sense because Google hosts an enormous amount of free apps that take bandwidth to distribute, manpower to scan for malware… they are ‘free’ to the consumer, but not to Google.
If an OEM doesn’t want to use these services, they don’t have to. They can build their own. Complaining that there are rules attached to software you’re getting for free is nonsensical.
In my opinion, this ruling is either blatantly misguided or a corrupt attempt to protect local business (Yandex).
Company policy Russia don’t agree with! Russia we talking bought! Communism never made sense really so I’m surprised it didn’t come sooner !