He also circles the practice of ‘sideloading’ apps on Android – the practice of installing app packages from third party websites. And popular Android devices such as the Amazon Fire tablet come preloaded with a competitive app store and no Google Play Store,” says White. “Most Android devices ship with two or more app stores preloaded. White further goes on to state that contrary to what the lawsuit claims, Google actually enables competition – he cites the presence of app stores that each OEM preloads with their custom Android interfaces as proof. The reason, White states, is around how Apple’s app ecosystem is one of the most successful ones in the world, and therefore, “if we’re not providing them (the users) with the best experience on Google Play, they have other alternatives to choose from.” As part of his defences against the lawsuit, White states that it is unfair to not count the Apple App Store as one of the Google Play Store’s key rivals, and that the lawsuit does wrong by only counting app stores within the Android ecosystem. In response to the lawsuit, Wilson White, senior director of public policy at Google, underlines that among other things, the case against the company at the federal court is “strange”. The lawsuit states that Google has taken conscious steps to maintain this Play Store dominance, with actions such as preventing third party app stores from buying Google ads on either Search or YouTube, and also refusing them from being downloaded through the Play Store – which comes preinstalled on every Android phone with Google services, i.e. Steps taken to maintain monopoly?Īccording to the lawsuit, the first and foremost allegation states that Google presently holds a 90 percent market share of all Android apps with its Play Store, despite the Android operating system being “open” (unlike “some others”, as Google reminded in its response). The latter, as the lawsuit alleges, is being carefully and consciously maintained by Google as the leading app store on Android, and that the company takes careful steps to ensure that all developers continue to ferry their wares on it – instead of independent and third party app stores elsewhere on the web. Earlier this week, on Wednesday, July 7, attorneys general of 36 states in USA, as well as Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit at the California federal court alleging significant antitrust and monopolistic practices by Google with its Play Store. The latest one, however, is the first of its scale that draws significant allegations on a broad scale, and seeks recourse to rein in its powers. Google, one of the biggest technology companies in the world, is by now no stranger to antitrust lawsuits.
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