I see too many otherwise smart people suggesting that no one but Google could make a safe or otherwise good app store for Android. That makes me sad.
The outcome of this trial should be that ALL Google Play Android APIs are public and documented and that Google be disallowed for a period of say 10 years from developing any new Play Store features on APIs that are not part of that public set. Want to add something to the Play Store, the API is public at or before launch.
Even playing field for app stores. Plain and simple.
Then it's up to Google to make picking and changing and removing app stores and all of that a super awesome experience that keeps users safe and in control, just like any good OS vendor would. It's also up to Google to have a competitive app store in Google Play. There's plenty of room for competition there and I'll wager that 30% cut will be one of the first things to take a hit.
I don't know if you remember the days where each phone had it own OS. It sucked, and beside playing snake there wasn't much you could do with it.
you got to take things in context, the current market for mobile OSes is a duopoly shared between apple and Google, there were two cases against each of them, but the outcome for each one them was different.
One verdict was that apple get to stay the dictator in its fiefdom and the other, more open platform got punished for trying to do the exact same thing.
What every company will take away from this is that, they either got to go full throttle on the control or no throttle at all.
Guess which side the companies like when given an ultimatum between theses 2 choices?
Is it possible for someone to make a better store than Google ? sure, I don't think any one is arguing that.
This will only lead to more fragmentation and a loss for incentive to improve the platform, guess it may join the graveyard in 10 years?
There are locked down APIs that require Google Play Services to access, and IIRC some of them are only allowed to Google apps and can't be accessed by third-party apps.
The outcome of this trial should be that ALL Google Play Android APIs are public and documented and that Google be disallowed for a period of say 10 years from developing any new Play Store features on APIs that are not part of that public set. Want to add something to the Play Store, the API is public at or before launch.
Even playing field for app stores. Plain and simple.
Then it's up to Google to make picking and changing and removing app stores and all of that a super awesome experience that keeps users safe and in control, just like any good OS vendor would. It's also up to Google to have a competitive app store in Google Play. There's plenty of room for competition there and I'll wager that 30% cut will be one of the first things to take a hit.