European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

Post by rusk » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 9:48 AM UTC

SparklingCotton wrote: post #458

rusk wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is literally a "world" of difference between a collection of trade-aligned sovereign nations, and a single nation of autonomous economic regions. As you mention, it's an accepted part of daily business in the US but everybody pays taxes to the Fed at the end of the day. All governed by the same congress, president, and a coherent political dialogue throughout. That's not to say it'll always remain so. The parti…

But even within a region, having corporations do private deals with the government is corrpution. You are not supposed to be able to get special privileges to your company to the detriment of your competitors. There can be no free market when justice (and thus taxation) is not blind.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 10:33 AM UTC

swebs wrote: post #579

bunderbunder wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that, in this day and age, preventing vendors from using Android forks counts as a form of locking customers out of competing operating systems. Even more so now that Android forks represent the only serious alternative available to any phone manufacturer who isn't based in Cupertino. Also, two wrongs don't make a right. Microsoft getting off way too easy does not mean that Google should get off easy, too.

I meant locking out competing OSs is worse than bundling a browser with your OS. Both companies deserve the fine.

Post by pas » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 10:45 AM UTC

nitwit005 wrote: post #876

shawabawa3 wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> same sort of obfuscation Microsoft used when they argued a web browser (IE) was an essential part of a desktop OS How is a web browser not an essential part of a desktop OS. Literally every single consumer operating system comes bundled with a web browser, and in fact everyone bundles their own OSX: Safari ChromeOS: Chrome Windows: Edge

> How is a web browser not an essential part of a desktop OS. The short answer, at the time anyways, was that you could just delete it to no consequence. It was just another program. Some of the phones do "need" a browser as they provide it as a feature to apps, so things are a bit murkier now.

Post by tanilama » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 10:50 AM UTC

omnimus wrote: post #925

genericid wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is free, ntoskrnl.exe and Win32 are properietary Microsoft software and they can be replaced, for example, with Linux and Wine.

People use windows for the GUI/experience. If manufacturers started to use nongoogle version of android the GUI/experience would not change much. Also many people buy windows license separate from their device. Google surely does not want situation where people buy google services license... they want mass adoption for data collection. If google starts to charge for android then i am sure there will be manufactures s…

Post by pas » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 10:56 AM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #320

typon wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there car dealers trying to offer a la carte car + entertainment system packages but are being shut down by BMW?

Of course there aren't because BMW absolutely squashed the possibility of that at the outset. But Google, apparently, deserves a $5B fine because they made a mistake of powering AOSP phones, the Amazon products, countless variations in China, set top boxes, etc. It is incredible seeing Google being seriously attacked on here for have an open source path as well. I feel like this is some sort of alternative universe.