Google Charging OEMs Licensing Fees For Play Store

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."

Comments

That's fair enough

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an important service which needs decent maintenance. 75c is cheap for providing Google with the funds to moderate and protect users.

Re: That's fair enough

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that they don't. There is plenty of malware on the play store.

Re: Google already has a noose on manufacturers

[thechanklybore]

Nonsense. Google Now voice activation only works on a few models (and can be switched off), plus the launcher with Now integrated is solely available for the nexus 5. Please stop the FUD.

What's the big deal?

[asmkm22]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see what the big deal is. Like it or not, Google exists to make money. If they feel they have enough leverage to charge people for stuff that used to be free (be them consumers or OEM's), then so be it. If the market can't bear it, the endeavor will fail.

Too often I hear the people complaining about products or companies are the same ones buying their stuff. We are asking for companies to regulate themselves and do what's in our best interest, when we can't even regulate ourselves. I think that's the whole reason government regulation even exists for things like this, is because people know they lack the willpower to make a chance on their own (stop buying the product), thus need some kind of external force to demand it.

Re:Go ahead, give me one more straw!

[Zaelath]

I'm sorry sir, would you like a free streak to go with your phone?

Dear God, no. Keep your pants on.

Re: Google already has a noose on manufacturers

[mlts]

There are the SELinux policies that got checked into 4.5 a few days ago which make it impossible for even a program running as root to extract and run files in the /data filesystem. Not an impossible task, but it will require all root apps to be re-engineered.

I don't think Google did this to lock out root apps, but plug some vulnerabilities, but there is a lot of bellyaching about this. It would be nice to have some switch to allow root apps (or just the su binary) to have their own SELinux security contexts, or a way to turn SELinux off without changing kernel arguments.

Re: Google already has a noose on manufacturers

[Nerdfest]

Nice to actually be able to see the damn source though, isn't it?

Re:What if Samsung threatens to fork?

[crashumbc]

And the fact that Samasung, is working VERY hard to replace all the Google apps with their own versions.

calendar, googleNow, and mail ALL are either off or not installed by default on the S4

S-voice
Scalender
and plain mail being the defaults

It will be interesting to see what Samsung does on the S5 (openmaps maybe?)

Samsung WILL either switch to Tizen OR fork Android in the next couple years, its coming...

Personally, I hate the Samsung apps, I'll never buy another unless I can get a version without touchwiz(horrible) and Samsung's crapware