Android’s new OEM rules in India swap “requirements” with “revenue sharing”
Enlarge / Let's see, you landed on my "Google Ads" space, and with three houses... that will be $1,400. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Hasbro)
Google is being forced to revamp how it licenses Android in yet another country: India. While these agreements with manufacturers are always a big secret, we occasionally get to know more about them via various leaks. The latest happened over the weekend from Kuba Wojciechowski, which shows how manufacturers can now sell Android in India versus the rest of the world.
Android has an incredible 97 percent market share in India, and as the world's second-largest smartphone market after China, that accounts for 600 million devices. About three weeks ago, Google lost an antitrust case in India, with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) issuing new rules for how Google can bundle Android with other Google services. The CCI also fined Google $161 million-about five hours' worth of Alphabet's $282 billion in yearly revenue, or about 25 cents for each of the 600 million phones in India.
India's new competition rules sound a lot like what the European Union laid down years ago, so much so that Google accused India of "plagiarism" in its antitrust ruling, saying the CCI "copy-pasted extensively from a European Commission decision." Google's blog post on the ruling outlined some of the changes, like that OEMS would be able to license individual Google apps, the default search engine would be chosen via a ballot screen, forking Android would be allowed, and that users would be able to pick their billing provider.