This past July, Google received bad news from European regulators. The company was fined nearly $5 billion. This fine resulted from Google providing Android apps and services free of charge in a bundle. Google required that smartphone manufacturers include the free apps when they used the Android operating system on their phones. The European regulators ordered Google to change their practices, but the regulators allowed Google to come up with its own solution is how to come within compliance of European regulations.
This week, Google has announced how they will seek to implement the decision of European regulators. According to The Verge, Google will no longer allow phone manufacturers to install items such as Gmail, the Chrome browser and Google Maps for free on their phones. The manufacturers will now be charged by Google. A separate license will need to be purchased by phone manufacturers in order for them to offer apps on the Android operating system through Google Play. Google did not announce how much the new charges would be for phone manufacturers.
Currently, there are close to one million different apps available for use on Android devices. This will not change under the new policy from Google. The likely outcome of the changes coming from Google is that some phone manufacturers will pay the new fees and offer users phones with many of the popular Android features already available on the phones. Other manufacturers may not do this, and this will allow them to sell their phones at a discount. However, consumers may not want to be bothered with having to take the time to install all of the services and apps on a phone when these services and apps are already loaded on some phones.
For right now, these changes will only be occurring in Europe. Google is appealing the European regulator’s ruling. In the United States, there has been little effort made to regulate the tech industry. However, that may be changing in the near future.
