Google Charging OEMs Licensing Fees For Play Store

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 23, 2014 @10:25AM 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."

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That's fair enough by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-23 10:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's an important service which needs decent maintenance. 75c is cheap for providing Google with the funds to moderate and protect users.
1. Re: That's fair enough by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-23 10:34 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Except that they don't. There is plenty of malware on the play store.
Re: Google already has a noose on manufacturers by thechanklybore · 2014-01-23 10:42 · Score: 5, Informative

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.