“The European Commission had solid antitrust reasons for fining Google 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) for violations including the bundling of certain apps with the Android operating system — and for not going after Apple for similar behavior,” Leonid Bershidsky writes for Bloomberg Opinion. “Yet, from a consumer’s point of view, Apple should get the same kind of attention.”
“The most important infraction by Google in the EU ruling is the ‘illegal tying’ of its search and browser apps to the Android operating system. The search giant, the ruling said, made Android phone manufacturers preinstall its search and browser applications if they wanted to provide access to the Google Play Store, where almost all Android users get their apps,” Bershidsky writes. “That, according to the European Commission, reduced the ability of other search providers and browser developers to compete because preinstallation creates a “status-quo bias”: Users are too lazy to research alternatives to apps that are already on their new phones.”
“If Google is at fault for its de facto monopoly in Android app stores, Apple should be held to account for a similar violation,” Bershidsky writes. ” Although an Android user can easily shop in a few alternative stores (though none is a match for the Google Play Store), an iPhone user cannot go outside Apple’s App Store without ‘jailbreaking’ the phone, a process that disables operating system updates. That makes Apple a monopoly in the truest sense of the word…”
Further stupidity here.
MacDailyNews Take: Moronic blather.
What the EC fined Google for, in particular, is that Google:
• has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google’s app store (the Play Store);
• made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app on their devices; and
• has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called “Android forks”).Google breached EU antitrust rules as follow:
• Illegal tying of Google’s search and browser apps
• Illegal payments conditional on exclusive pre-installation of Google Search
• Illegal obstruction of development and distribution of competing Android operating systemsApple, of course, is not guilty of any such breaches.
Anyone who suggests “Apple needs to be fined, too” doesn’t understand the EC’s ruling, basic antitrust law, or even the yawning differences between Google’s and Apple’s smartphone business models.
On every iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini box, the potential buyer is informed of requirements, including “iTunes X.x or later required for some features” and also that an “iTunes Store account” is required. The plaintiffs were informed of the requirements prior to purchase. If the plaintiffs didn’t like the terms that came along with Apple devices, they should have opted for a pretend iPhone from any dime-a-dozen Android fork handset assembler. Then they could blissfully infest their fake iPhones with malware from a variety of fragmandroid app cesspools.
SEE ALSO:
Why Google owes the European Union $5 billion – July 18, 2018
EU hits Google with record €4.34 billion fine for abusing market dominance – July 18, 2018
US DOJ sides with Apple over App Store antitrust allegations in Supreme Court brief – May 10, 2018