EU's charges are a sham. I hope Google gives the EU regulators exactly what they deserve:
Google should outright stop licensing Android to manufacturers in the EU (like Apple), make the OS closed source (like Apple), disable side-loading apps (like Apple), purposefully make the mobile browser incompatible with W3C standards (like Apple) in an effort to drive developers & consumers to the app store, and slap a minimum price tag of $1000 on Pixel phones (like Apple).
Maybe then, the true value of choice will sink in.
I get your point and I know it’s a great way to reap those free internet points, but you’re being a little disingenuous with the Apple hate here. Apple never licensed out iOS to the EU or anywhere else. The kernel of iOS is open source. I think it’s a stretch to conclude that Apple purposefully makes their browser incompatible with web standards in any meaningful way to drive App Store revenue. And the minimum price of an iPhone is nowhere near $1000. They start at $350 retail.
I get your point, and deifying Apple with falsehoods is indeed a great way to score internet points. But touting Apple fandom as facts is disingenuous here.
> Apple never licensed out iOS to the EU or anywhere else:
I never implied it did.
> The kernel of iOS is open source.
Please link a ROM to load on my iPhone. I can give you a hundred for any popular Android device.
> I think it’s a stretch to conclude that Apple purposefully makes their browser incompatible with web standards in any meaningful way to drive App Store revenue.
There's ample evidence to the contrary, and statements from within Apple
> They start at $350 retail.
No - you can't confuse carrier subsidies and contracts with price.
> They start at $350 retail. No - you can't confuse carrier subsidies and contracts with price.
Well it’s a good thing I’m not talking about subsidizing pricing, then. An SE out of contract is $349. An iPhone 8 - a flagship phone - is $699, just a little more than a Pixel.
After all that effort to keep manufacturers from using alternative OSes, they should now hand them a strong reason to invest a lot in those? Doesn't sound very logical to me.
A good OS does not a win in the marketplace guarantee. Windows phone is a case in point.
BTW - the suggested response is indeed a logical reaction to EU's illogical charges. True choice is allowing phones @ $150 - $1500 to exist, customized for every customer segment in the marketplace. True choice is the ability to tinker with the underlying OS and ROM. True choice is the ability to side-load apps despite __insert_agency_here__ not blessing it. And Android empowers those choices.
It were the logical reaction if "as closed as possible" and "the current situation" were the only two possible states. And with your proposed EU-ban, Google would leave massive hole in the market for handset makers to fill with alternatives, in a market large enough to motivate such development. That doesn't sound like something for Google to want, I believe their market position is better than that.
Apple is not a monopolist (24% market share). Being the biggest operating system comes with responsibilities (in EU). If Google would pull Android away from Europe, other parties would take over as most consumers only buy less expensive phones. Microsoft for example would love to have this market.
Google should outright stop licensing Android to manufacturers in the EU (like Apple), make the OS closed source (like Apple), disable side-loading apps (like Apple), purposefully make the mobile browser incompatible with W3C standards (like Apple) in an effort to drive developers & consumers to the app store, and slap a minimum price tag of $1000 on Pixel phones (like Apple).
Maybe then, the true value of choice will sink in.