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Google Charging OEMs Licensing Fees For Play Store

Posted by timothy on from the say-those-were-good-free-pills dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google has begun charging OEMs for access to its proprietary Play Store applications for Android though the reported amount is as low as 75c per device. Between charging OEMs for Google Play apps, showing ads within these apps (Search, Maps and GMail) and profiling users with the data it collects this does show that Google is willing to leverage their stranglehold on the mobile market to control and monetize wherever it can. Add that these proprietary applications and the proprietary Google Play Services are the primary areas for Android innovation and development and you end up with an operating system that is less and less 'free' in the freedom and cost senses of the word."

3 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Google already has a noose on manufacturers by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1, Troll

    I found this Ars Technica article about how hard core Google is kind of interesting. Kind of made me sympathetic for all the work that Amazon has to do to get the Kindle Fire working.

    Also, for those who don't know, KitKat has Google Now taking over your home screen, meaning Google now listens on your microphone 24/7 (as if it hasn't already).

    Is Apple now the white knight, saving us from Android domination? No of course not, but interesting to see how quickly the idea of Google owning the world has switched. I mean, I can turn off the microphone for certain apps in iOS, but can't in Android.

  2. Shrug by Kagato · · Score: 0, Troll

    Given Android users are loath to actually pay for apps I think it make sense. Despite have a tremendous number of Android smart phones active world wide and over 48 billion apps installed the Apple App store blows away Google Play revenues.

  3. Re: That's fair enough by breeze95 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Is that a serious question? Take a look at the proceedings from any security conference in the last 2 years and you can find a very long list. The latest trick is for individuals who release small apps for free or a token amount to be offered money to sell their app, especially if the app already asks for more permissions than it really needs (great incentives there...). The buyers then release a new version bundled with malware. The new version is installed automatically if it doesn't need any more permissions, and since most manufacturers don't ship software updates for Android phones in a timely fashion there are typically a few nice root vulnerabilities lying around on a significant fraction of the installed base. From there, the attacker can do what they want (attack mobile banking apps, harvest passwords, send premium-rate SMS, or just proxy all network traffic and inject their own ads, the last being the most common).

    I know a couple of people who have turned down money to sell their (free, with only a few thousand users) apps for this purpose.

    Can you backup your claim and list a few of the problem apps?