Google fined $5 billion by the EU over Android OS dominance - Sensationalist Headlines

Google fined $5 billion by EU over Android Google fined a record $5 billion by the EU for Android antitrust.. Google has been fined a record €4.3 billion ($5 billion/£3.8 billion) by Europe's competition watchdog for abusing its dominant Android mobile operating system to cement the popularity of Google apps and services. It's the biggest antitrust fine ever given by Europe's competition regulator against a single firm, and cements competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager's reputation as Silicon Valley's policewoman. Google said it would appeal the decision. Specifically, it said: Google forced phone makers to pre-install its Chrome browser and its Search app as a condition for accessing the Play app store. Google illegally paid manufacturers to pre-install its Search app exclusively, protecting its search business from competition. Google prevented Android phone makers from selling devices that run "forked" versions of the operating system.

the only google response i saw so far was https://twitter.com/Android/status/1019552850022674433

I approve, those google apps are so resource inensive and lead to lag.

Makes sense.

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/Remove_Browser_Mini_Bubble_No_Claim_Counter.gif This gif is the biggest load of shit ever. https://i.imgur.com/gKDwtWf.jpg Chrome can't be fucking removed from the OS, at max you can disable it. If you actually want to remove the app totally, you have to go through the effort of rooting (which nulls warranty for just about every android device) and doing it that way. Chrome and Google, along with every other Gapp are all baked into the system, search especially. Google should, at set up, ask the user if they want to use Chrome or a different browser and if they want to use Google search, Yahoo, Bing, Duckduckgo etc instead of forcing it onto their OS. And forked Android versions should be allowed onto the market, they should advertise that gapps aren't going to be apart of the OS but show steps into how to activate it again.

Kind of a bad title imo, I came in expecting to not like the decision but now that I've actually read the article it's a great call by the EU imo. This is something roms do, where you're able to choose the amount of gapps you want. No reason it can't be done with normal phones.

Hell yeah fine me pappy

Good. Might teach them a lesson.

Google wants you to use the whole suite or don't even worry about getting the phone. Which is fine, but there are some Gapps I don't use and would rather remove outright than disable them. I find myself preferring Samsung Apps over fucking Google apps, go figure. The EU will probably focus on Apple soon for having Safari baked into iOS (that I'm sure Google will attempt to use as a defence), at least on Android, ever competitor browser has access to all sorts of new and experimental web technologies. Safari is the only browser on iOS that can do anything major, every other browser alternative are just web frames with a different UI.

Wow, has whoever created that gif never used an android phone before? Imagine if you could just click and drag to remove lmao.

even ios lets you kill stock apps if you dont want them

I mean technically it is accurate. It's just deceptive. That "remove" bar is there but it is not to uninstall, it just removes the icon. Of course it's presented as being an uninstall of Chrome which is not the case. If you do it with an app that isn't considered essential it will have the remove bar and an uninstall bar.

It's considered a system app there which means it can only be disabled (and android lets you roll back updates on system apps to save more space) but not entirely removed. I think that'd be more to blame on the OEM not Google because I don't think Google mandates they install it as a System app.

I'm honestly okay with that and don't see any issues with it. You always have the option of installing shit bloatware browsers and search engines yourself if you want to later.

But if I manage to install a browser more bloated than Chrome on my phone, why can't I remove Chrome?

The problem is that it already comes with shit bloatware browsers, search engines, and other bloatware that I don't use. The fact that the only thing to do about them is to disable them is exactly what's wrong. And come on, you're advocating for the inability to control the device you've bought. Like come on

That's just a blanket policy on the OS, you can't remove ANY apps that come preinstalled; this also applies to carrier installed apps. The policy is there so that you can't uninstall your phone's settings app or any other basic functionality (such as your only web browser) because for many users, permanently deleting such basic functionality on accident would "break" the phone. I don't really see why it matters that it's on your phone if it isn't usable, active in any form, and can't store user data after you disable it. I was pretty miffed when I first realized that ATT and Samsung had both installed shitware onto my phone, but after disabling it I literally forgot it was ever there.

That's not true, I can uninstall plenty of the apps that came preinstalled on my phone, just not many Google ones.

My bad, you're right. It only does it to apparently flagged as "system" apps, which in my case was all of them. Still, it makes sense for mantaining baseline functionality of the phone in my opinion.

Why can't I just click "remove anyways" after it gives me a warning like Microsoft does when you switch off Edge? Google forces a whole bunch of additional shit on manufacturers for pretty basic features, it's about time someone (EU regulatory body) complained in a language they understand (money).

Phones come with bloatware that you can't remove that aren't even Google's and it pisses me off. So on top of the Google shit I never, ever use (Docs, Photos, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Play Music, Play Movies and TV, etc.), I've got a bunch of Amazon's bullshit on my phone, too, and it can't be removed, either.

Im pretty sure Apple is exception due to them being sole manufacturers of everything that comes preinstalled on their devices.

Yes it does, and for a phone that's Messaging, Calling, Contacts, and an app store since it's a smartphone. However FM radio and Google Drive suite and audio recorder and pretty much anything else isn't.

If Apple licensed iOS to other manufacturers, and forced them to use AppStore - sure. But they're the sole manufacturer of iOS devices, and from the point of law, they're clean, as you're not forced to use iPhones. The problem is that you can't choose what Google apps you want in your phone. It's everything or nothing cituation. Oh, and you was probihited from making phones with Android forks if you licensed GApps package (Acer learned this the hard way with Replicant phones)