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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

#41

Post by sirpunch »

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.

I hope people don't make the assumption that anything that's not coming from Google is harmful and a potential adware/malware. People who support Apple's app store monopoly also use the same logic. Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware. But this is a step in the right direction IMO.

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

#42

Post by tatpacc »

sremani wrote: post #38
tatpacc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The Ambanis are no one's poodles all Indian Politicians are their poodles.

I am not denying that. But the way, current government is working, good luck with current situation improving anymore. And BJP or Congress or any other party politicians, especially in India, like to enjoy absolute control over citizens. So by some miracle if other party got in power in future then also they will not work to correct wrong done by current government.

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

#43

Post by nmridul »

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.

Except Motorola (now owned by Lenovo and claims closest to default Android) most of the Chinese phones still come with their own bloatware. Xiaomi has many default apps including their own Messaging, file manager, dialer. These come with their own user agreement and privacy policy.

Some of these apps are good to have while others are just bloat.

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

#44

Post by cafed00d »

sirpunch wrote: post #41
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.

I hope people don't make the assumption that anything that's not coming from Google is harmful and a potential adware/malware. People who support Apple's app store monopoly also use the same logic. Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware. But this is a step in the right direction IMO.

> Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware

One person's crapware is another person's batteries-included-ware.

We wouldn't want to ban Sony MP3 players from including an app that plays music, right?

Similar to how we wouldn't want iPods to be banned from coming with an in-built Apple Music.app client[1]

Google's bundled-in variant of an internet browser _may_ be as harmful as Safari on iOS or, quite formidably[2], Internet Explorer on Windows. But unless governments can unambiguously discern whether Chrome is adware/crapware or batteries-included-software we'd not get much use out of regulation.

[1] Please don't flame on me with "iPods don't have Apple Music". What I meant to say is that the on-device application software that ran on iPods is _identical_ to that running on macOS, iPhone etc. It's pretty much the exact same music player code.

[2] IE bundling into Windows is literally what got Microsoft branded as anti-competitive by the Justice Dept. in the late 90s / early 2000s

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

#45

Post by Arainach »

sirpunch wrote: post #41
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.

I hope people don't make the assumption that anything that's not coming from Google is harmful and a potential adware/malware. People who support Apple's app store monopoly also use the same logic. Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware. But this is a step in the right direction IMO.

We don't need to assume. We have decades of experience and data showing that mobile operators will jam phones full of as much spyware, adware, and experience-ruining garbage as they are legally and technically able.

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

#46

Post by neilpa »

cafed00d wrote: post #44
sirpunch wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope people don't make the assumption that anything that's not coming from Google is harmful and a potential adware/malware. People who support Apple's app store monopoly also use the same logic. Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware. But this is a step in the right direction IMO.

> Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware One person's crapware is another person's batteries-included-ware. We wouldn't want to ban Sony MP3 players from including an app that plays music, right? Similar to how we wouldn't want iPods to be banned from coming with an in-built Apple Music.app client[1] Google's bundled-in variant of an internet browser…

> We wouldn't want to ban Sony MP3 players from including an app that plays music, right?

Maybe? There was that time Sony decided to install a rootkit when you played a CD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

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

#47

Post by gauddasa »

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.

But I've been always disabling (using Android Debug Bridge) native Google apps (Gmail, Youtube ...) and using alternatives from F-Droid including apps for phone call and messaging. In fact, I have avoided signing into Play Store on all androids I have ever used so far.

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

#48

Post by mmiyer »

programmer_dude wrote: post #16
cudgy wrote: post #9

Anyone know how much net profit Google makes in one year from the India market in USD? One article states Rs 586.2 crore, but how to convert to USD? https://m.timesofindia.com/business/india-business/google-in...

It's 5,593.8 Cr, which is equal to 676.15 million USD. Note: 676.15 = 5593.8*1e7/82.73/1e6.

586.2 Cr is correct for net profit ("The net profit was higher by about 23.9 per cent at Rs 586.2") which is what the original commentator said. 5,593.8 Cr is revenue.

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

#49

Post by programmer_dude »

mmiyer wrote: post #48
programmer_dude wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 5,593.8 Cr, which is equal to 676.15 million USD. Note: 676.15 = 5593.8*1e7/82.73/1e6.

586.2 Cr is correct for net profit ("The net profit was higher by about 23.9 per cent at Rs 586.2") which is what the original commentator said. 5,593.8 Cr is revenue.

Uh oh, it seems like I made a mistake. You may be right! But I am not able to edit my comments now.

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

#50

Post by nmridul »

cafed00d wrote: post #44
sirpunch wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope people don't make the assumption that anything that's not coming from Google is harmful and a potential adware/malware. People who support Apple's app store monopoly also use the same logic. Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware. But this is a step in the right direction IMO.

> Maybe the Indian government needs to push separate bills prohibiting manufactures from packaging crapware One person's crapware is another person's batteries-included-ware. We wouldn't want to ban Sony MP3 players from including an app that plays music, right? Similar to how we wouldn't want iPods to be banned from coming with an in-built Apple Music.app client[1] Google's bundled-in variant of an internet browser…

If Apple ipod is market leader in music player then the device owner should be able to uninstall the "Apple music" and install any 3rd party developed music player on it, this should be OK.
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