Google Inc. is back under U.S. antitrust scrutiny as officials ask whether the tech giant stifled competitors’ access to its Android mobile-operating system, said two people familiar with the matter.
The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement with the Justice Department to spearhead an investigation of Google’s Android business, the people said. FTC officials have met with technology company representatives who say Google gives priority to its own services on the Android platform, while restricting others, added the people, who asked for anonymity because the matter is confidential.
We all know who these “technology company representatives” are. Remember “Fair”search?
That being said, the more investigations into technology giants, the better.
Absolutely brainless, that would be like investigating Toyota for not using GM parts
Edited 2015-09-26 01:02 UTC
Toyota doesn’t have 80% market share.
Where do you get that 80% figure, and what are you considering as the “market”, here?
The market is the mobile phones industry and 80% is Android worldwide market share in this market. It is what we are talking about, isn’t it?
From my reading of the article, the concern is not about Android, but about Google. Google doesn’t have 80% of the mobile phone market. It is the actual companies who make and sell phones with their versions of Android who have the market share.
The US playing global policeman (again). Google doesn’t have anywhere near 80% share of the US market.
To be fair, people complain when we don’t play world police too. It’s always lose-lose in that arena.
So they are investigating the use of Google services in Google-branded version of operating system… Why not investigate Microsoft service usage in Android-based Lumias and Cynogen Inc.’s devices?
FWIW when I think about necessity of antitrust control in American cellular market, there is another name popping up in my head…
Edited 2015-09-26 04:27 UTC
In a sane world, the existence of OEMs selling phones with AOSP or various forks would clear Google from such allegations.
Yes, Google services are all or nothing, so the likes of Microsoft can’t coerce manufacturers to replace single items, like putting Cortana in, they have to provide a full alternate stack (and a good, compelling to users, one), which aren’t there yet. So what? Microsoft already released Android phones with whatever apps they wanted.
I would rather Google services have priority on Android because the alternatives are mostly bundleware crap. I think Google has a responsibility to Android to try to protect the user experience.
Now that Microsoft Windows is less of a monopoly today than it was I think they should take similar steps with PC OEM’s like Lenovo. Any software bundled with the OS should be limited to just hardware drivers or a very limited set of things MS approves or vendors should have to pay /significantly/ more money for a license that allows them to make customizations and tarnish the “Windows Experience”
If Anything Windows and Android have given others too much leeway with their OS’s and it’s part of why Apple is considered a more premium product.
I don’t want companies pre-installing a bunch of garbage on my devices.
So you don’t want hardware manufactures including other software than from the OS vendor.
But you have no problem with the OS vendor include a whole bunch of stuff (services).
I know what you mean, but you are sort of contradicting yourself.
Why can’t we just have a clean OS instead ? And choose the services or even appstore we want to use ?
Privacy and security wise, I have a huge problem with the OS I install also determining what services I’ll be using (thus where my data is stored).
Edited 2015-09-26 07:47 UTC
You hit the nail right on the head. If I want a similarly “premium” Android device out of the box I have very limited choice… Nexus. That’s it.
So, Microsoft, where is my Office 2016 for Fedora?
I always laugh when Linux users whine about not getting Microsoft products.
i think its grounds for an anti trust probe.
To paraphrase: “I always laugh when Windows Phone users whine about not getting Google products.”
And not only whine, they run to daddy Government to make bad, bad Google behave.
Well no, the question is whether customers are forced to buy the complementary service.
The government should be spending its time and efforts investigating Microsoft for its unscrupulous business practices and for its unfounded collection of user data!
Back in the day, Microsoft was the focus of anti-trust investigations and was ordered by a judge to be split into two companies: (1) Software (i.e., Office, et al) and (2) Operating systems. Conveniently that went away when Microsoft allowed the government to have a back door into Windows which lets it see everything everyone does on his or her computer. Evidently, Google doesn’t allow the same. What a hypocrisy!
Edited 2015-09-26 20:22 UTC
No, …the government should be spending its time and efforts investigating its own agencies for their unscrupulous practices and unfounded collection of peoples data.1
you’re asking that the government investigate itself? that’s pretty funny.
No, …I made a comment, not a request. What’s funny though is that you apparently don’t know one part of government has investigated another part many times before. You at least know the government is made up of multiple branches and agencies right?
let me think…IRS corruption (nothing), hillary (nothing) fast and furious (nothing). it seems to depend on what administration is in power. hot air is what governments are good at.
This completely floors me.
Android is, to a large part, open. (Amazon, or Chinese phones, anyeone?)
Apple’s iOS is locked down tighter than my Granny’s drawers, and nobody even blinks.
This looks like an Apple (or Microsoft)-backed witchunt to me.