this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
97 points (98.0% liked)

Technology

85964 readers
3980 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48969583

Google...

🔸required Android makers to pre-install Search & Chrome for Play Store access

🔸paid manufacturers exclusively

🔸blocked other Android versions

Less competition = fewer choices for users.

At Murena, we propose a full ecosystem without vendor lock-in. Your data, your choice.

👉 Read the full article by BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgj0pp5p62o?app-referrer=deep-link

all 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Cost of doing Monopoly.

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 20 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

I definitely think Google is guilty of what the Commission has accused them of here, but I also can't help but think: if pre-installing Google Search and Chrome are anti-competitive, why is Apple not guilty of the same thing? In fact, I'd argue that Apple is ten times worse in this regard because you actually can't use any browser but Safari on iOS (all other browser apps are actually just re-skins of Safari under the hood). Does being a vertically-integrated company excuse such behaviour?

[–] mschae@discuss.mschae23.de 15 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

why is Apple not guilty of the same thing?

They are, I believe the commission has also been investigating apple for this. But it might also be considered a different situation since, as far as I understood, google was fined for pressuring other manufacturers into pre-installing google search and chrome on their devices.

Apple is ten times worse in this regard because you actually can't use any browser but Safari on iOS

Well, WebKit, not safari (you could say safari is apple's WebKit skin, I guess), but you're right. The DMA was supposed to fix this and force them to allow other browser engines, but I don't think much has changed in this regard. I'm not aware of any browsers not using WebKit on iOS so far, at least.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Thank you for being corrective about the WebKit thing.

I wish media and others would be more accurate when talking about browsers. All these "Chrome-based" browsers are not "based" on Chrome at all, they are just using Blink, the rendering engine, which Chrome/Chromium also uses. And Blink itself is based on/forked from WebKit, funny enough.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago

Google was found to have paid manufacturers and telecoms to have Google search and Chrome pre-installed, and further enforced this by blocking access to its Play Store if they didn't comply. Finally, it prohibited manufacturers from offering other versions of Android, again by threatening to ban access to its apps.

The only reason Apple isn't also fined here is that they build and sell their own hardware, so they don't have to force anyone to play by their rules - because they're the only ones on the field...

Apple has been fined several times for abuse of dominant position though, and will surely be fined again since they continue to do it and profit massively from it.

[–] dudeface@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

They don’t license out their operating system to other companies or ever claimed it was open

They may be guilty of similar things, but not quite the same

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 hours ago

It is relevant not economically but as a point of principle. The US companies have a certain comfort with fucking about without challenge.

cool, thata still only about 3% of their 2025 profit, yawn

[–] devaly@ani.social 4 points 4 hours ago

Google will have to say "I'm sowwy" and pay 10 euros for comitting war crimes.