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India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

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Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#31

Post by acchow »

keewee7 wrote: post #14

Good in theory but Google's Android apps and Google forbidding Indian telcom companies and Chinese smartphone manufactures from installing adwarecrap has made the ultra-cheap smartphone experience somewhat tolerable for hundreds of millions of people. It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on.

> It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on.

Didn't American telecom companies try this? And then the customers eventually found it all insufferable, so the practice was canned?

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#32

Post by tatpacc »

bradleykingz wrote: post #13
tatpacc wrote: post #4

Here is the link to original order [ https://www.cci.gov.in/antitrust/press-release/details/261/0 ] some experts 13. Accordingly, in terms of the provisions of Section 27 of the Act, the Commission has imposed monetary penalty as well as issued cease and desist order against Google from indulging in anti-competitive practices that have been found to be in contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act. Some…

Holy hell, this seems a lot more comprehensive than I'd ever expected. Good job India. I hope this spreads to the rest of the world somehow. The fact that it's impossible to uninstall YouTube or use Vanced as the default for YouTube.com links is the bane of my existence.

As an Indian, unfortunately I don't have much hope. Even if this is true and somehow got implemented, it has even far reaching worse outcome for the country. I hope that i am wrong but see my other comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33278016

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#33

Post by lenkite »

keewee7 wrote: post #14

Good in theory but Google's Android apps and Google forbidding Indian telcom companies and Chinese smartphone manufactures from installing adwarecrap has made the ultra-cheap smartphone experience somewhat tolerable for hundreds of millions of people. It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on.

Open access will also enable OSS apps. Having alternatives would be terrific.

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#35

Post by summerlight »

acchow wrote: post #31
keewee7 wrote: post #14

Good in theory but Google's Android apps and Google forbidding Indian telcom companies and Chinese smartphone manufactures from installing adwarecrap has made the ultra-cheap smartphone experience somewhat tolerable for hundreds of millions of people. It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on.

> It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on. Didn't American telecom companies try this? And then the customers eventually found it all insufferable, so the practice was canned?

That's mostly because of iOS where Apple has a complete control over. If the half of the market cannot play with those garbage, it is much harder to do that for the rest as well thanks to competition. But AFAIK, iOS has a pretty minimal presence in India so it's not going to be the same situation.

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#37

Post by gernb »

tatpacc wrote: post #4

Here is the link to original order [ https://www.cci.gov.in/antitrust/press-release/details/261/0 ] some experts 13. Accordingly, in terms of the provisions of Section 27 of the Act, the Commission has imposed monetary penalty as well as issued cease and desist order against Google from indulging in anti-competitive practices that have been found to be in contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act. Some…

Can I have the same for Micrsoft and Apple for both mobile and desktop?

For Apple I get it's different since they don't have OEMs selling Macs/iPhones/iPads but I feel like many similar restrictions should apply

Examples:

> Google shall allow the users, during the initial device setup, to choose their default search engine for all search entry points.

> Google shall not offer any monetary/ other incentives to, or enter into any arrangement with, OEMs for ensuring exclusivity for its search services.

Seems like this should go both ways given the previous one.

> Google shall allow the developers of app stores to distribute their app stores through Play Store.

> Google shall not restrict un-installing of its pre-installed apps by the users.

I know Apple has done a better job of this now than in the past but I can't uninstall the dialer on iOS where as I can on Android, as just one example still left. I'm pretty sure I can set the default camera app on Android as well and delete the built in one though I haven't used android in years so no idea if that's still a possibility.

Also, while we're at it. Will any of this apply to Chromebooks?

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#38

Post by sremani »

tatpacc wrote: post #29
keewee7 wrote: post #14

Good in theory but Google's Android apps and Google forbidding Indian telcom companies and Chinese smartphone manufactures from installing adwarecrap has made the ultra-cheap smartphone experience somewhat tolerable for hundreds of millions of people. It's all going to be insufferable adware hell from now on.

other comment mentioning that "Ambani’s Reliance co will launch search next month." is not realistic. I mean even Bing is not able to capture significant market share of Google after all these years. > Google forbidding Indian telcom companies and Chinese smartphone manufactures from installing adwarecrap has made the ultra-cheap smartphone experience somewhat tolerable for hundreds of millions of people. however, th…

Ah! the whole theory that Reliance is a BJP's poodle. Go back and look 1986 Cricket World Cup and what is it named.. and .. you got it right, Reliance Cup.

The Ambanis are no one's poodles all Indian Politicians are their poodles. The monumental growth of Reliance from a small textile company to a petro-chemical behemoth to a huge conglomerate happened under the rule of Indian National Congress.

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#39

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #28
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't understand what you are trying to say?

I read it as "Google having control was bad, but Google had been using that control to stop very bad things, so in practical terms this is actually bad news."

nah.... sure we will have ad filed stores and all that bs but that is currently happening on xiaomi and realme phones anyways.... they have OS level ads and people are fine with it....

i am interested in having F-droid as a respectable store that has some more polish, aurora-store type features would be nice things to have.

and having ability to "delete system apps" that is only possible on stock android or in my case moto phones only.... i don't have google crap installed and untill now, xiaomi/realme/oppo and others couldn't do that even if they wanted. now they can.....

think of it this way. W10, w11 has a lot of nonsense but for technically inclined, there is the debloater so anyone who is interested can do that and that should happen here also

Re: India fines Google $162M for anti-competitive practices on Android

#40

Post by metahost »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #27
sandGorgon wrote: post #22

This is a by-product of a simple thing: Google being the largest payment system provider in India. Google Pay in India is basically CashApp++ . And the govt is paranoid about the "Big Tech takeover of banking". Which is not very dissimilar to "Bust Up Big Tech Act". Google Pay is pre-installed on every android system. This is basically a browser war part 2.0. Except for payments.

Aren't PayTM and PhonePe bigger?

Those are insignificant in comparison to Google Pay (or Tez as it used to be called).
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