I can't fathom why Google is named in this, but not Apple? Android can be released with whatever software you want on it... see chinese phones, or the kindles... You just cant bundle it with google services or play store if you also try to bundle third party services. Its a choice, not a forced decision, and users can install those later if they want. On iOS, apple tells you what you can install, how it can be used, and they can change those rules on a whim and destroy businesses - and a core value of their app ecosystem is that you are not allowed to create apps that compete with them, see the new removal of Pebble apps since the release of the Apple Watch....<p>The EU is backwards as hell...
"Anyone can use Android without Google"<p>Really? Then why can't I uninstall Google Plus, Play Music, Play Newstand, etc? These are "system" apps. Remember when Microsoft made IE a system app? That didn't end well.
> <i>It’s the EU’s biggest antitrust action against an American tech company since it levied charged against Microsoft and its Windows operating system in 2000, which eventually resulted in huge fines for the company and notable changes to its technology. This time, the tables have turned, but the case is playing out in similar ways.</i><p>Er, the investigation they just announced is the biggest antitrust "action" since Microsoft? Oh Wired, you remain as lazy as ever.<p>It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. It's been over 5 years since the Google search investigation first became public knowledge[1], and it'll be another few years before it's resolved. Compared to web search, the mobile market is going to be changing far, far faster over the next 5 to 7 years.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/technology/19antitrust.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/technology/19antitrust.htm...</a>
What comes around goes around.<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/technology/companies/25google.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/technology/companies/25goo...</a>
Google should be thinking in terms of switching android away from Java toward either Objective-C, which is very popular, or C++. This would be a very large and costly change but the longer they wait the higher the costs rise. Furthermore the fact that Google is not using Objective-C means that two teams are always needed for mobile development in most companies... Whereas if they use Objective-C one team could code for both android and iOS.<p>Alas like most people who work in tech Googlers have trouble questioning assumptions.
After having stiffed Microsoft, the EU has turned its attention to Google. Business as usual. You are talking about an organization that can't even balance its own budget, going about left and right extorting money from whoever seems to have a lot of it.
Sooner or later Appple will be next.