Google to Charge Android OEMs as Much as $40 per Phone in EU

Megalith

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According to documents obtained by The Verge, Android manufacturers who wish to include Google’s Play Store and other mobile apps in the EU may have to pay Google as much as $40 per device. As Ars Technica explains, this is Google’s way of recuperating ad avenue lost by the the European Commission’s recent ruling, in which Google would have to unbundle the Android app package so OEMs could use alternatives.

EU countries are divided into three tiers, with the highest fees coming in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. In those countries, a device with a pixel density higher than 500 ppi would have to pay a $40 fee to license Google’s suite of apps, according to pricing documents. 400 to 500ppi devices would pay a $20 fee, while devices under 400 ppi would pay only $10. In some countries, for lower-end phones, the fee can be as little as $2.50 per device.
 
How many giant middle fingers the size of the US technology market is the EU going to take up the ass before it realizes that it can't push US companies around like this? Attacking free market policies across oceans will continue to get them shit on.
 
How many giant middle fingers the size of the US technology market is the EU going to take up the ass before it realizes that it can't push US companies around like this? Attacking free market policies across oceans will continue to get them shit on.

EU should just go full China with their gadgetry. Or break some patents.

That would be enough for the US to have their pants in a bunch big fucking time. LOL.
 
A lot of the chinese OEMs will raise prices a lot. A large portion of the phones the Chinese OEMs sell are basically at cost, no way they are going to eat $20-$40 on top of the basically break even prices. EU has to tax everything for those nice "free" benefits.
 
I hope someone in Europe is enterprising enough to create a new android store that can be included with the phone. Maybe they can fork FDroid.

I say screw google!!!
 
haha. this is what you get when you give too much power to a few politicians.

Let the citizens vote on this shit
 
this is great news for consumers and the tech sector in the EU, the effects of which we will see in 1 year or so cause

1. phone manufacturers can excise unnecessary parts or acquire a more basic version of offers. Less parts and less complexity means less bloat, and lesser security problems.

2. Play store is easily replaceable. Other than updating apps which comes preinstalled on the phone ( ie Facebook ), traffic volume is mostly to download top 10 games. As games are not tied to Google Play only , this is easily reproduce-able with other stores, which can set lower fees, or a better comment and review system (Play's store system is so basic and easily manipulated that it is useless). Manufacturers like Samsung also have a game store explorer preinstalled ( where you can download Fortnite , for instance) , so it is really not a problem.

3. productivity apps ? Microsoft is a big player and still comes preinstalled in many phones, and this allows other 3rd party apps to break into the market, as you do not need high functionality for these apps for normal phone usage

4. map apps = non-google apps like Waze is very good. Maybe some old mapping companies can now get into the game by replacing google maps as the default.

5. online storage apps = too many to count. Local alternatives ensure data is saved locally and is subject to local EU laws.
 
Does this apply to google's own phones?

I don't believe it does. Only to other phone manufacturers selling phones with Android pre-installed in the EU that want choose to include those Google apps, like the Play store and/or Chrome.
 
Well EU do rank just as low with me as Google and the fruit company and many others do, so really this are no surprise to me.
It is also why my last phone was a windows phone,,,,,, which was just as poor as any other phone in my book.

I really am looking forward to when i can retire my phone again and be free again, but right now i am obligated ( family reasons ) to carry one, but i can assure you the moment its no longer the case my phone go flying towards the recycle bin.
 
this is great news for consumers and the tech sector in the EU, the effects of which we will see in 1 year or so cause

1. phone manufacturers can excise unnecessary parts or acquire a more basic version of offers. Less parts and less complexity means less bloat, and lesser security problems.

2. Play store is easily replaceable. Other than updating apps which comes preinstalled on the phone ( ie Facebook ), traffic volume is mostly to download top 10 games. As games are not tied to Google Play only , this is easily reproduce-able with other stores, which can set lower fees, or a better comment and review system (Play's store system is so basic and easily manipulated that it is useless). Manufacturers like Samsung also have a game store explorer preinstalled ( where you can download Fortnite , for instance) , so it is really not a problem.

3. productivity apps ? Microsoft is a big player and still comes preinstalled in many phones, and this allows other 3rd party apps to break into the market, as you do not need high functionality for these apps for normal phone usage

4. map apps = non-google apps like Waze is very good. Maybe some old mapping companies can now get into the game by replacing google maps as the default.

5. online storage apps = too many to count. Local alternatives ensure data is saved locally and is subject to local EU laws.

1. Possibly. The likely result, however, will be more bloat as instead of a group of apps that are designed from the ground up to work together, you'll be replacing them with a string of apps that may not play well with each other. For instance, GPS details currently live inside Google Play Services, which can then share it to every app that uses the correct APIs. Removing that means you lose the ability to share those details between apps. It can be duplicated by each manufacturer, sure, but now they're building their own system which may or may not work with all of your apps without some additional translation app that emulates the Google Play Services API.

2. Agreed. I currently have 3 different app stores on my phone, and so far all of them seem to be pretty good at their primary jobs - searching for apps, installing apps, keeping apps updated. I don't think Google disallows installation of competing app stores, though (look at Samsung), so I'm not sure if this is a new benefit. I could be wrong, though, I cannot find anything that says one way or another. Amazon did their fork not because of the Play Store needing to be installed by default but because they wanted the revenue of the app store on their hardware.

3. Again, not something Google stops. I've had so many different variants of productivity software pre-installed on phones and tablets over the years, I've no idea what I've seen. I know I've had Google's (duh), but I just set up a Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus the other day that *also* had Microsoft's whole suite.

4. FYI - Waze was bought by Google in 2013, so replacing Maps with that would just replace one Google app with another. Also, Waze's data is used to help make Maps better, though I don't know if the reverse is true. That being said, other maps are also pretty good, like Nokia's HERE, so I think this one point I could for sure see monopolistic practices in. That being said, Maps has tended to be the best, with TomTom and Garmin never really having tried to create a good app, because they wanted to sell you the hardware and a subscription. Blaming Google for creating and bundling a map app at a point in time when there was no other option is poor form, though.

5. Again, not something Google stops - I've had Dropbox and OneDrive pre-installed on mupltiple devices. Being pre-installed does not force one to use Drive, especially when there are other options included on the device.

Like Microsoft's EU version of Windows, no real benefit is coming about. For the most part Google has not stopped competing apps from being installed on a device that uses Android & Google's apps. At the most, they've set them as default apps. However, seeing as you can actually change default apps in Android, I'm not quite sure what the big deal is. The *only* thing they have forced is installation of their suite of apps if you want to install the Play Services and related apps. Nothing stopped HTC from including their own web browser, email client, text client, etc. Nothing is stopping Samsung from the same, as well as their own store. Nothing stopped Amazon from creating their app store and putting it on there without forking, but they wanted any of the money from any app sales to go to them instead of risking it to Google.

In the end, EU is going to either pay more for a device, or have a naked device like China has, only without the Chinese replacement stuff. I installed one of those ROMs once. It's really bare and takes quite a bit of effort to make it really usable outside of simple web browsing (not app running, just web browsing).
 
i never did understand why the EU sued them, If i made a product and sell it then its being sold the way i intended it to be, if you dont like it then do not buy it. fairly simple concept..... why would anybody ever be forced to open their product up to the competition?
dont like my programs? PISS OFF!!! go find a phone or OS that you do like and dont waste your cash on this one. if nobody else sell one thats your problem. i dont really like google, ( still use a windows phone.) but i do think they and microsoft both got screwed by having to open their services or change things about them cause of the EU and/or other political bullshit. like them or not, the big tech companys like them have spent a truely massive amount of money to design and build todays gadgets, and dont deserve to have a bunch of nasty-ass political losers force them to open up or change their goods in the name of fairness. maybe they should design their own OS or phone for the folks that aint happy with whats out their. they try to use the anti-monopoly laws as a reason to force the issue, and those laws do have a place in the world, but i think some industrys are so specialized that they simply can not apply.
the proper way to handle this would have been to simply make 2 versions of the phone/OS, one is the same way you've always done it and will sell a shitload, the other will be 30% more expensive and come with nothing but the actual hardware, that way people can put on it whatever they do like so they stop bitching about it. as for apple....well they can just continue their demise as the only reason they got to where they are today is Jobs and since his death its been more or less a slow crawl into oblivion to join him.
 
1. Possibly. The likely result, however, will be more bloat as instead of a group of apps that are designed from the ground up to work together, you'll be replacing them with a string of apps that may not play well with each other. For instance, GPS details currently live inside Google Play Services, which can then share it to every app that uses the correct APIs. Removing that means you lose the ability to share those details between apps. It can be duplicated by each manufacturer, sure, but now they're building their own system which may or may not work with all of your apps without some additional translation app that emulates the Google Play Services API.

2. Agreed. I currently have 3 different app stores on my phone, and so far all of them seem to be pretty good at their primary jobs - searching for apps, installing apps, keeping apps updated. I don't think Google disallows installation of competing app stores, though (look at Samsung), so I'm not sure if this is a new benefit. I could be wrong, though, I cannot find anything that says one way or another. Amazon did their fork not because of the Play Store needing to be installed by default but because they wanted the revenue of the app store on their hardware.

3. Again, not something Google stops. I've had so many different variants of productivity software pre-installed on phones and tablets over the years, I've no idea what I've seen. I know I've had Google's (duh), but I just set up a Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus the other day that *also* had Microsoft's whole suite.

4. FYI - Waze was bought by Google in 2013, so replacing Maps with that would just replace one Google app with another. Also, Waze's data is used to help make Maps better, though I don't know if the reverse is true. That being said, other maps are also pretty good, like Nokia's HERE, so I think this one point I could for sure see monopolistic practices in. That being said, Maps has tended to be the best, with TomTom and Garmin never really having tried to create a good app, because they wanted to sell you the hardware and a subscription. Blaming Google for creating and bundling a map app at a point in time when there was no other option is poor form, though.

5. Again, not something Google stops - I've had Dropbox and OneDrive pre-installed on mupltiple devices. Being pre-installed does not force one to use Drive, especially when there are other options included on the device.

Like Microsoft's EU version of Windows, no real benefit is coming about. For the most part Google has not stopped competing apps from being installed on a device that uses Android & Google's apps. At the most, they've set them as default apps. However, seeing as you can actually change default apps in Android, I'm not quite sure what the big deal is. The *only* thing they have forced is installation of their suite of apps if you want to install the Play Services and related apps. Nothing stopped HTC from including their own web browser, email client, text client, etc. Nothing is stopping Samsung from the same, as well as their own store. Nothing stopped Amazon from creating their app store and putting it on there without forking, but they wanted any of the money from any app sales to go to them instead of risking it to Google.

In the end, EU is going to either pay more for a device, or have a naked device like China has, only without the Chinese replacement stuff. I installed one of those ROMs once. It's really bare and takes quite a bit of effort to make it really usable outside of simple web browsing (not app running, just web browsing).


lets see in 1 year how it goes.

but nonetheless the benefit is one less leverage Google has over everyone else. That great news. I think that is indisputable.
 
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Obviously for the money first and foremost. Close behind in reasoning is that a bloated bureaucracy like the EU must justify existence by nonstop busyboding: a hammer forever in search of a nail.

It's Google , the very definition of a mega consumer internet-tech corp, we are talking about. Monopolistic practices, and manipulations all around.

The days of Google as just a useful search engine is wayyyyyyyyyy over.
 
Obviously for the money first and foremost. Close behind in reasoning is that a bloated bureaucracy like the EU must justify existence by nonstop busyboding: a hammer forever in search of a nail.

You Americans will hilariously defend your products even if they break other countries law.
 
You Americans will hilariously defend your products even if they break other countries law.

You Europeans will buy products without researching/knowing your laws because you have too many and can't be bothered. Your companies imported products that didn't follow the laws of your land, and then the EU sits on it until enough "damage" has been done to collect billion dollar fines. That is the real hilarity. Joke's on y'all
 
You Europeans will buy products without researching/knowing your laws because you have too many and can't be bothered. Your companies imported products that didn't follow the laws of your land, and then the EU sits on it until enough "damage" has been done to collect billion dollar fines. That is the real hilarity. Joke's on y'all

So the burden of knowing if Google is breaking any laws is on their consumers? I don't think so.
 
So the burden of knowing if Google is breaking any laws is on their consumers? I don't think so.


If I see a case of pot sitting on the shelf at Wal-Mart, you can bet your ass imy not touching it.

Aside from that, as I also mentioned in the post you quoted, I mentioned that the companies importing illegal products have huge legal teams dedicated to this stuff. But the EU doesn't fine it's importers, resellers, and integrators so there is that.
 
So....if I pay Google $40, they'll stop tracking me on the desktop too?

Of course, you get their word! Anyway, as with all Google stuff, people traded their privacy for their better service, features, lower product cost and flexibility.
 
You Europeans will buy products without researching/knowing your laws because you have too many and can't be bothered. Your companies imported products that didn't follow the laws of your land, and then the EU sits on it until enough "damage" has been done to collect billion dollar fines. That is the real hilarity. Joke's on y'all

Nah, Google didn't just enter EU territory. They have been there from the start. Bad practice need to be punished.
 
Nah, Google didn't just enter EU territory. They have been there from the start. Bad practice need to be punished.


No, but Google doesn't bring the part into the country. Your carriers do. If anyone should be responsible, it's the people importing the illegal products. EU won't do that though, because fuck the large American companies.
 
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