Android users could be harmed by EU ruling

Yesterday, the European Union launched an inquiry into Android’s dominant 80% share of the smartphone market. The Antitrust Commission announced it will investigate the connection between Google Play services and Google apps.

Any smartphone supplier can run the Android Open Source Project (OASP,) a free and available as an open source project. China’s Xiaomi, for instance, takes the Android OASP and repackages it with a UI that looks like iPhone’s UI.  Xaomi doesn’t opt in to the Play Store for its apps, but relies on its own app store. 

Most hardware OEMs opt in to Google Play services because they want access to the million plus apps on the Play Store and Android’s security services. Security is a more subtle point but an important part of the Android operating systems architecture that is built on Play Services.

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