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Google Responds To EU Antitrust Claims In Android Blog Post
An anonymous reader writes Earlier today the European Union released a Statement of Objection against Google, asserting that the search giant's dominance violating antitrust rules and Android products hindering equal opportunities for market access among its rivals. Google has now released an official blog post in response to the Commission's proposed investigation. Regarding its Android devices, Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering at Android writes: "The European Commission has asked questions about our partner agreements. It's important to remember that these are voluntary—again, you can use Android without Google—but provide real benefits to Android users, developers and the broader ecosystem." He continues: "We are thankful for Android's success and we understand that with success comes scrutiny. But it's not just Google that has benefited from Android's success. The Android model has let manufacturers compete on their unique innovations [...] We look forward to discussing these issues in more detail with the European Commission over the months ahead."
Is anyone surprised that a cloud based note system needs you to log in? If you don't want to sign in to google, don't use keep - it's not like it's the only way to store notes - there are hundreds of alternative note apps out there on 3rd party market places.
You don't need a google account to use android, you do if you want to use google's services. A bit like you need a Live account to use Microsoft's cloud services, and an iTunes account to use Apple's cloud services.
I don't think the point was this app specifically. The point is that Google tries their hardest to make all apps depend on Google's "services". Sure, it's possible to do without, but it's getting damn hard. And in addition to this they have completely forgotten everything about security implications. Try to install Android and hide your data from third parties. I bet you can't do it while using the phone for very long. I would guess that more than half of the apps in Play could be classified as malware if you define malware as something that spreads data that the user wants to keep private.
That's probably because somewhere in the google complex, there are some crusty old bureaucrats that just cant let go of the notion that "Proprietary == Profit!", and that "Control" takes many forms other than just "Stop all competition at all costs!"
Things like, "Look, we design and maintain the freaking OS. Here's how the location service API works, and how to make calls. Our location service package in Google Apps is purpose tailored for the Android platform, and we provide support for it-- however, if you want to have your device provide location services using a different library, it needs to conform to this API, and you are on your own if it breaks. We wish you luck, but if it breaks, dont come crying to us over it. Likewise, if you are linking against our location service software in your app using some method OTHER than the published API (Such as hooking some of our secret sauce inside that isn't normally exposed, hijacking some unanticipated feature of our location service daemon, or using some magic ID string for some other purpose that will then break if some 3rd party location service daemon is installed-) you are not developing for the android platform correctly, and if we catch you doing it, we will boot you from the playstore for not following best practices."
You still have market dominance. You still have control over the playstore. You still have control over quality of software on offically supported devices (so you dont look bad) ,AND you get to have a powerful shield against regulatory oppression.
BUT-- Somewhere in corporate la-la land, there is that cadre of old fucks who see an open platform and shit themselves because they dont have a strangle-hold death-grip on every little thing involved.
I don't think the point was this app specifically. The point is that Google tries their hardest to make all apps depend on Google's "services".
Keep was a FREE app written by Google. What do you expect? The shit is free.
Keep is less than 1% of the note apps available for Android. Almost all of those apps don't depend on any Google service. Some are adware. Some will phone home to someone other than Google with info gathered from your phone. Some you have to pay a small fee for. Some come with a degree of privacy and security. It takes time to sort out which is the best app, but if you don't like Google's services in your apps, don't install the apps that use these services.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
You seem to fundamentally misunderstand how antitrust regulations work. You need to have a sufficiently large market share that your actions distort the market to be considered a problem. I could release a smartphone tomorrow that had a single app store and was completely obnoxious in every single way that people have complained about Microsoft, Apple, and Google, but I would be exempt from any antitrust exemptions because no one would buy my CrapPhone and it would have no impact on the market.
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The same is true for a lot of other banks. Google has intentionally made sure that they control the app distribution channel,
* WinPhone: Apps MUST be downloaded from the Microsoft Store
* iPhone: Apps MUST be downloaded from the App Store
* Android / AOSP: Alternative stores are explicitly allowed, though off by default. Apps may be sideloaded through a bootloader, through USB, through the official play store, or through third party app stores like Amazon's or F-Droid.
How, exactly, is Google the bad guy here?
Google's additions are no more or less restrictive than their counterparts.
They are SIGNIFICANTLY less restrictive than their counterparts. I just got a corporate issued iDevice, and coming from android it is infuriating just how much Apple forces you to play with their ecosystem. You can install google maps, but it wont give you lock screen integration, and it cant be made the default for instructions, and it cant prevent screen lock. You can install SwiftKey, but you cant disable the Apple keyboard, nor prevent its mandatory use for password fields. You can install chrome, but cannot force links to open in it.
It is quite obnoxious to see people holding Google up as the bad guy here. Can you imagine if Apple was dominant? Oh wait, they were for a while and it WAS obnoxious, because it WAS horrendously locked down. Google offers an alternative that people have hacked to pieces and done wonderful things with (like Samsung, XIaoMi, OnePlus, Oppo, etc's take on AOSP) and the EU feels the need to crap on them because they hate google for some reason.
Google isnt perfect but theyre the best internet company we've had in a LONG time. Everyone else is worse in just about every category.
Fanboyism trumps market economics every time. I personally want a healthy Android, and a healthy iOS - both systems push each other to be better, and we all win. Hell, a healthy Windows Phone in the mix wouldn't hurt either. A nice 3-way competition for my money.
Why people figure for one company to win, they have to completely crush the competition is beyond me - it only leads to irrational fanaticism that the company itself doesn't feel, and legal problems just like Google is now facing in the EU.
Apple doesn't give a shit if Android wants to take the bottom 60% of the market - they're perfectly happy owning the top 25%.
Google doesn't give a shit if Apple holds 25% of the market - they're happy with the 70% of the eyeballs looking at their ads, and inputting data into their indexing engines.
Microsoft probably gives a shit, because they've always been ruthless assholes. But, they're under 5% of the mobile market so nobody cares.
Blackberry hardly exists anymore, just like Symbian and the other also-rans.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Show me a phone that has Samsung App store on it, but doesn't have other Samsung apps forced onto it.
Show me an Android phone you can't install competing app stores on.
Thank you for admitting you're wrong.