News - Microsoft and Nokia ask EU to act over Android mobile monopoly

[rabbid]

Yup it's kind of fair in that sense.

The issue is that shouldn't the governing authorities be doing this on their own, not needing a poke from someone who has vested interests.

They probably should, and perhaps a lot of other things to benefit the actual country in which they are elected, or in this case formed an unelected coalition?

Maybe instead they are too busy tailoring their expense reports, riding their EU gravy train, or jumping up and down over which breed of horse shouldn't be allowed in beef?

[crossy]

Google are really bad tbh, I work in the sports betting industry and google do not allow ANY betting based Apps in the Google Play.

Erm, yes there is - search "sports bet" for example and there's a load of them. On the other hand, if you're meaning Coral, Ladbrokes, etc then you're right. Although there's nothing to stop those companies from offering an Android app that's downloaded from their websites directly.

The mobile betting industry is rated at £6billion, Google have a 55% market share (or something) therefore it is very difficult to reach users without TV advert size money. Betting is legal and regulated in the UK, Google should not be allowed to dictate thier own personal moral view on the world, taking advantage of thier monopoly (duopoly with Apple).

I seem to remember that it's the US that has moronic gaming laws (remembering that nastiness about them arresting a UK national for daring to offer gaming services to US citizens). Google as a US-based corp I guess has to abide by those. Then again, that leads into the interesting question of how tailored the Play store should be - e.g. should an Android user in Saudi (for example) be barred from seeing any of those, ahem, adult picture/card game apps?
And as for betting adverts on tv - there's too many of those darned things. Watch Channel4/5 and it seems like every commercial break has at least one ad for either an online poker service, a betting service or bingo. And sometimes all three.

Microsoft stop crying, your product is not desirable, get over it.

I wouldn't say WinPhone is "not desireable", perhaps "less desirable" is more accurate. Actually I was looking at some WP phones yesterday (cos one of the kids fancies jumping ship from Android) and was quite impressed. If I didn't have a lot of money spent on Android apps that I like then I'd be tempted to switch myself.

according to a statement by FairSearch's lawyer Thomas Vinje. “... consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google's Android operating system,”

If I was someone in Google, I think there'd be some useful PR mileage in that quote ... 'anti-google alliance bitter because of android's mobile dominance' etc.

On reflection, I think FairSearch are playing a risky gambit - fine if they win, but if they don't then they're going to be perceived as a bunch of whiny second stringers. And I wonder why Apple's not involved with this - seems like something they could easily do a friend-of-court/interested-party for.

[cyberguy]

LOOOOL!

Now THIS is what I call poetic justice!

Sucks to actually have to compete against someone that has gone out and hoovered up your target market on you doesn't it. Feel the buuuuuuurn!

[eugenius]

But what should they do? It's easy to replace the browser in Android, I've done it. As soon as you install another one click a link the OS asks you what browser should open that link.

The "problem" is that the stock browser is the best. Firefox isn't there yet but when it will I'll use that, Opera mini has it's use but that's about it.

In Microsoft's case the stock IE browser was crappy and broke standards to lock you in. This isn't the case with Google right now.

I don't see why building a better OS that's not locked in like IOS and duh, gaining market dominance with it breaks any laws.

I'm more wary about google's insistence I add my telephone number to the account. It keeps pestering me to do it and there's no way to turn that off, it just keeps coming up like spam.