EU Officials Ignore Apple Rivalry
On November 10, the general counsel for Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)—better known as Google—took to the blogosphere to refute claims that Google’s “Android” operating system was harming competition in the European Union (EU).
The charges have been leveled by antitrust authorities in the EU. By their telling, Android’s 90% stranglehold over the European market is deeply unfair and allows Google to crush its rivals on any other mobile platform. (Source: “Android: Choice at every turn,” Google Blog, November 10, 2016.)
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Google’s Kent Walker addressed those claims on his blog, saying the government had completely misunderstood the case. Not only did they completely ignore that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a closed-source competitor to Google, he says, but they are just plain wrong.
On the charge that Google favors its own apps and products through Android, Walker is dismissive, saying the evidence proves otherwise. His core argument is that “Android hasn’t hurt the competition, it’s expanded it.”
“Last April, the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections raising concerns over how we manage Android compatibility and distribute our own apps,” he writes. “The response we filed today shows how the Android ecosystem carefully balances the interests of users, developers, hardware makers, and mobile network operators.”
He also brushed aside the claims that Android is bad for developers, arguing that without a stable and dominant platform, developers would be unable to craft a product for millions of users. And without that reach, their livelihoods would be in danger.
That’s why Android has a minimum level of compatibility needed from their developers. It is a necessary maneuver to prevent fragmentation on the platform. Some people would argue that having those standards defeats their aim to be an open-sourced platform, but Walker disagrees.
He points out that excessive “flexibility” nearly destroyed previous operating systems like “Unix” and “Symbian.”
“When anyone can modify your code, how do you ensure there’s a common, consistent version of the operating system, so that developers don’t have to go through the hassle and expense of building multiple versions of their apps?” Walker asks.
