It’s time for Google to throw ‘open’ Android under the bus

Europe has been investigating Google Search for so long now, that the filing of formal antitrust charges last Wednesday was almost anticlimactic.

But there was one part that stuck out. In addition to filing formal charges related to Google Search, the European authorities also said they were launching an investigation into Android. 

This is new

European authorities are looking at three things:

Did Google force or incentivize Android phone and tablet makers to “exclusively pre-install Google’s own applications or services”? 

Did Google prevent smartphone and tablet makers who wanted to install Google applications and services on some devices from shipping “modified and potentially competing versions of Android (known as ‘Android forks’) on other devices”?

Did Google tie or bundle certain Google applications and services that shipped with Android devices, with other Google applications, services, and APIs? 

Cyanogen is using the AOSP to build a viable version of Android that’s out of Google’s control.

This sounds complicated – and it is – because there are really two Androids.

There’s the Android Open Source Platform, or AOSP — let’s call it “open” Android.

Open Android provides a fully functional mobile operating system and some scaffolding to build certain types of apps. Google develops open Android and publishes the code under an open source license, meaning anybody can take it and do whatever they want with it. 

Amazon used this platform to build the Kindle Fire and Fire Phone. Many Chinese handset makers like Xiaomi use it to build smartphones and tablets. Cyanogen is using it to create a separate version of Android that Google doesn’t control.

Google makes no money from these versions of Android, which don’t include any Google apps or links back to Google services (or Google ads).

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