India Fines Google For Anti-Competitive Practices on Android

India's antitrust watchdog fined Google $161.9 million on Thursday for anti-competitive practices related to Android mobile devices in "multiple markets" in a major setback for the search giant in the key overseas nation where it has poured billions of dollars over the past decade. From a report: The Competition Commission of India, which began investigating Google several years ago after complaints from local firms, said in its order that Google requiring device manufacturers to pre-install its entire Google Mobile Suite and mandating prominent placement of those apps "amounts to imposition of unfair condition on the device manufacturers" and thus was in "contravention of the provisions of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act." It also ordered the Android-maker to not offer any incentives to smartphone makers to exclusively carry its search services.

Re: Pot, Kettle

[saloomy]

This is what Google gets for open sourcing its operating system? I dont get it. Why not just have the device manufacturers download Android and customize the suite to their liking? Makes no sense to me.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

This is what Google gets for open sourcing its operating system? I dont get it. Why not just have the device manufacturers download Android and customize the suite to their liking? Makes no sense to me.

No, it's the conditions Google places on device manufacturers if they want the Google apps, which are NOT open-source.

If you want to ship a phone with just open-source Android, it's fine, but if you want Google stuff (GMail, YouTube, Play Store, etc) then Google has a lot of licensing requirements like making

Re: Pot, Kettle

[saloomy]

So, leave the apps off the phone and let the user install them themselves. You can download open source Android, and then download YouTube once it is running. Actually, I like that solution better. Do not steer me towards what you presume I want (or worse, what you want me to want).

Re:

[PCM2]

The trick here is that the Google Play store app is itself one of the Google apps/services that you need to install as a bundle. So you're in for a penny, in for a pound. If you don't want to pre-install Google's apps, you don't have any easy way to have customers install the apps themselves, unless they're installing them from some shady third-party service that carries hacked and malware-laden apps.

Re: Pot, Kettle

[saloomy]

https://www.androidauthority.c... [androidauthority.com]

Re:

[Kyogreex]

The average user who buys an Android phone and discovers it doesn't have the Google Play Store is probably just going to return it to the retailer because they "can't get their apps." The thought of installing it will never enter their minds.

There are exceptions to this, obviously, but they generally prove the rule. Amazon's Fire tablets with their own store and bundled apps, for example.

Re: Pot, Kettle

[saloomy]

The manufacturer could pre install the store app. It is not against the Ts&Cs.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Governments by definition have to do many things at one time rather than just one thing at a time.

And high level anti-monopoly specialists are rather poorly suited for prosecution of low level fraud. Different skill set and all.

Re:

[Luckyo]

When was such time? Even prehistoric governments did more than one thing.

Re: Good effort, but...

[saloomy]

By definition, no. Governments should do as little as they can. Everything a government does is by fiat, and Carrieâ(TM)s the threat of violence. Everything. If you donâ(TM)t comply with government edicts, the eventual result is forced theft of your funds via fines or imprisonment or both, and further resistance leads to violence. So no, by definition, governments should do very little. Stopping other violence, National defense, and adjudication being the only three I can get on board with.

Re:

[Luckyo]

This is a fun libertarian dream that never existed and as long as humans exist in their current biological form will never exist. It's fundamentally at odds with human nature.

Especially in nations as large, diverse and complex as India with as complex of a history of governance as India.

Re: Good effort, but...

[saloomy]

Coercion by people who seek and obtain power is human nature, but maybe we may discover the better of ourselves. Live and let live.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Coercion by high status individual over lower status ones exists in animals that are separated from us by hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Engage reality, not fever dreams.

Re: Good effort, but...

[saloomy]

Most primates exhibit behaviors human societies have overcome. Government coercion will have its day, much like slavery did. Much like rape before that, and human sacrifice before that.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Really now? We have overcome status seeking?

Drugs. Get off them. It will help you.

Excellent

[bubblyceiling]

Now please do Apple

Re:

[AkIonSight]

Now please do Apple

They should, but idts its gonna happen, mostly because the market share of Apple products in India is so low that there really much 'incentive', or should I say, 'reason' or 'cause' for them to do it