Google's Android app requirements antitrust case dismissed

A U.S. federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that charges Google harmed consumers by forcing Android handset makers to use its apps by default, but gave the plaintiffs three weeks to amend their complaint.The two consumers who filed the suit failed to show that Google's allegedly illegal restrictive contracts on manufacturers of Android devices resulted in higher prices on phones, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said in a Feb. 20 ruling.Handset makers are free to release Android handsets without Google's applications, however, if you want one Google Android application, you got to have them all. I don't know if the latter is harmful in any way for consumers, but the plethora of insanely cheap - and sometimes, cheap and still really good - Android devices seems to contradict the complaint from the plaintiffs that it drives up prices.