Even if you split Android off from Google, the Play store is still the Play store, nothing would change except it wouldn’t be under Google anymore.
There’s a problem too saying “it’s a monopoly”, as long as Apple is running their app store and Google has theirs, there’s no monopoly. Change phones. Problem solved.
nothing would change except it wouldn’t be under Google anymore.
That’s a massive change.
Google is an ad company, so they have a vested interest in knowing what apps you use, how often you use them, and perhaps even what you do with those apps. Splitting that off means the app store needs to sustain itself without the massive ad network (I suppose they could sell the data).
It could even be split three ways:
Google - all the search and ad stuff
Android - just the OS, which survives based on license fees to manufacturerers
Play Store - just the play store
That way the Play store would need to compete with alternatives, like vendor-specific stores and FOSS stores. Whether that’s desirable is certainly up for debate, but it would definitely be a significant change.
Change phones. Problem solved.
That’s a duopoly, so no, the problem is absolutely not solved. If there were more than three phone OS options, I’d agree with you. But right now there are pretty much just two major ones, which means they can get away with a lot of nonsense because their customers really only have one other option.
The breakup this is referring to is splitting off the Android operating system from the rest of Google.
Even if you split Android off from Google, the Play store is still the Play store, nothing would change except it wouldn’t be under Google anymore.
There’s a problem too saying “it’s a monopoly”, as long as Apple is running their app store and Google has theirs, there’s no monopoly. Change phones. Problem solved.
That’s a massive change.
Google is an ad company, so they have a vested interest in knowing what apps you use, how often you use them, and perhaps even what you do with those apps. Splitting that off means the app store needs to sustain itself without the massive ad network (I suppose they could sell the data).
It could even be split three ways:
That way the Play store would need to compete with alternatives, like vendor-specific stores and FOSS stores. Whether that’s desirable is certainly up for debate, but it would definitely be a significant change.
That’s a duopoly, so no, the problem is absolutely not solved. If there were more than three phone OS options, I’d agree with you. But right now there are pretty much just two major ones, which means they can get away with a lot of nonsense because their customers really only have one other option.