Could there be unintended consequences for security?
The worry is that, having battled fragmentation for years, the Android ecosystem will now have even more fragmentation to deal with.
The simplest scenario is that device makers will pay up and pass that cost on to everyone buying an Android phone.
Another possibility is that device makers will switch to third-party apps in place of the Google versions.
Plausibly, rivals such as Microsoft and Amazon could pay to get Bing and Amazon Search onto Android devices, along with other apps from outside the Google stable.
As much as some resent Google’s domination of Android, the EC’s action could end up annoying the one group the data economy still depends on – developers.
The Developer’s Alliance, which actually backed Google in its case,
claimed:
There is a risk that diverging versions of Android will lead to devices where apps don’t work for users. Developers may also need to do costly rewrites of apps for multiple incompatible versions.
It’s somewhat reminiscent of the EU’s protracted battle with Microsoft 20 years ago over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows 95.
