EU hits Google with record $5 billion fine over Android antitrust practices (cnet.com).
The issue being one of anti-competition dominance in the “post-PC” era which Google is particularly fond of because agreements with phone makers make them dependent on Android and stipulate that certain Google Apps and search tool as well as the Google Play Store must be preinstalled.
“Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said Wednesday in a statement. “These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits.”
Certainly bringing to mind the Browser War which saw Microsoft have to provide choice of alternative browsers to Internet Explorer on the Windows Desktop with the US Government threatening to break up the company due to its monopolisation (thehistoryoftheweb.com) which never came to pass, which should—but won’t—be looming its head again today with Windows 10 in that virtual voice assistant Cortana insists in showing you its results if appropriate for a browser in Edge—the latest re-branded version of Internet Explorer—by default without downloading of browser extensions to get it to work with Chrome (laptopmag.com, Mar. 2018), which personally I’d rather not use either, therefore pretty much leaving Cortana’s assistance to “What is the time” and “What is the weather like?” which the Alexa on the Amazon Echo Dot in the room does without need of a browser.
And, thinking about it, Amazon Alexa’s insistence on using Bing when used on Fire tablet with no setting choice of alternate search engine is somewhat questionable too.
But back to Google and the record fine, which really is small change to to the dominance its action brought—in the first three months of 2018, Google made $31.2 billion in revenue, $7 billion in income (mic.com)—and “six to eight years too late” in the opinion of Geoff Blaber, tech analyst at research firm CCS Insight:
At this point, he added, unbundling Google apps that users rely on just means they’ll have to seek them out and download them. He also expressed concern that the already known issue of fragmentation of Android could worsen, resulting in inconsistent app performance and a poorer user experience for consumers.
“Inconsistent app performance and a poorer user experience” certainly being what comes to mind when using Androids for some, or perhaps just me, but then again Apple portable devices lose their sparkle soon too, in the case of the iPhone embarrassingly proved intentional to help convince you need a new one (Latest Picks 29th Dec. 2017).
Such is the nature of the consumption devices of the Post-PC age (techfruit.com, Apr. 2016).
Updated 19th July 2018
And glad to tweet about something other having to deny his fangirling of Vladimir Putin (thisisnocave.blogspot.com), Orange Don takes aim on a #MAGA “enemy”, the breakup of which just also happens to be favoured—and perhaps meddled in—by Vlad too:
Trump hits out at the EU over $5 billion Google antitrust fine (cnet.com).
President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that a European Commission fine slapped on Google is proof that EU has “taken advantage of the US.”
Rather than Google taking advantage of anyone be they in the European Union or in the States using a Droid and their tools to be protectionist of their dominance, and indeed pay less tax in the EU: Facebook, Google and Amazon could pay ‘fair’ tax under EU plans (theguardian.com, Mar. 2018).
The European commission called for large technology companies to pay a 3% tax if they make money from user data or digital advertising in a country, regardless of their bricks-and-mortar presence. As well as social media companies making money through user data, the move would also catch online market places, such as Airbnb and Uber.
Recent/related stories
- EU’s disastrous Copyright Reform bill approved, but then blocked, at least for now (Blog 20th June 2018)
- Google fined record €2.4bn by EU over search engine results (Latest Picks 27th June 2017)
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