The European competition commission is gearing up to charge Google with giving unfair prominence to its own apps like search and maps in supplementary software licensing deals it strikes with mobile phone makers running its Android operating system, four sources familiar with the process said on Monday.
Very like the search charges (which were filed a year ago, and absolutely nothing has happened). Except that 1) Google really did manipulate search results to keep out rivals 2) phonemakers have always been able to use AOSP and then fill it in with apps – as happened with the Nokia X. I don’t think the Android case is as strong as the search case.
AOSP is the Android Open Source Project, the open source aquivalent to Google’s Android, lacking all Google apps and services. Amazon’s Fire OS and CyanogenMod are based on AOSP, for example. AOSP (in several different flavors) is especially strong in China, thanks to Google’s services not being available there.
