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Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

unwiredview.com

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Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#21

Post by kllrnohj »

billyjobob wrote: post #16

Chromium is a free software version of Chrome for PCs. Is there an Android version of Chromium? If so, wouldn't OEMs just ship that instead of licensing Chrome?

Sort of. Chromium is actually the base for Chrome, and that's true for Android as well. However while Chromium on PC has more or less the complete browser UI, the Chromium for Android does not. All the hard stuff is there in Chromium for Android - blink, V8, graphics, webgl, etc... - but the UI isn't.

In Android 4.4 the WebView sits on top of Chromium, so if an OEM really wanted they could continue to use their own browser skins that sit on top of WebView like they previously shipped and it will now magically use Chromium under the hood. So really there's no story here.

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#23

Post by kllrnohj »

UnfalseDesign wrote: post #15
gcb1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google is worse than microsoft when it comes to web control. the only reason for this is so they can decouple the browser from the system, so they can update the browser faster. or do you think they like that all those pre 4.1 devices (90%+) cant run their tracking-cookie-substitute or whatever?

Decoupling an app from the OS to update it faster is the reason they pulled the YouTube app from being shipped with iOS.

The YouTube app that was being shipped in iOS previously was written by Apple, not Google. Google's YouTube app was never bundled with iOS.

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#24

Post by Zigurd »

Before Chrome became the Android browser id led a dual life, as Chrome, Google's commercial product that includes some licensed IP, and Chromium, an open source project.

I expect that licensing Chrome in Android is necessary for the same reasons there are parallel projects and products for other platforms.

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#25

Post by Aissen »

One thing that isn't in the article: Chrome for Android is proprietary software. Yes it uses the chromium project as an engine, but all the UI bits are proprietary.

This leads to ridiculous procedures if you want to recompile libchromeview.so and replace it in your app: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/AndroidBuildInstructi...

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#26

Post by _wmd »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #2

All the more reason for OEMs to start shipping with Firefox instead.

Sadly it's unlikely that this is how it would work. Most probably when you agree to license the Google Apps package it's an all-or-nothing affair, so if you want Play on your handset, I'm guessing you must take Chrome too.

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#27

Post by sp332 »

ozten wrote: post #20

If only there was a free, completely open source browser with more than 4.5 stars in the Google Play store which could be bundled without any business deals... Bonus points for a cool project codename like Fennec.

Firefox for Android hasn't been called Fennec for a long time :)

Re: Android KitKat ships without browser app. OEMs have to license Chrome

#29

Post by raverbashing »

ozten wrote: post #20

If only there was a free, completely open source browser with more than 4.5 stars in the Google Play store which could be bundled without any business deals... Bonus points for a cool project codename like Fennec.

Well, I'd say one advantage of the "store" model is that you don't need a browser to download a new browser (well, in the back it probably has a lot of Webviews, still)
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