Google has flagged as “priority” the verdict by India’s antitrust regulator that its Android Operating System had abused its dominant position, people aware of the matter told ET, as the country is one of the largest markets for the US-based search giant.
Google is currently working on a strategy which may include challenging the two orders by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), they added. The verdicts may hurt the developer base in the country since it would have to develop apps with different specifications for different app stores.
“The CCI ruling is very concerning, not just for the security risks that come with sideloading (of apps) but also the risk that the order makes vis-à-vis forked versions of Android,” one of the people said.
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Sideloading refers to downloading of apps outside of app stores using the APK file. Google has put in place a structure where the open-source ecosystem has a baseline level of compatibility which lowers costs for developers to get their apps out on Google Play Store.
“If it now has to enable forked version of Android, we’re actually going back to the early 2000s world where the ecosystem was super fragmented and developers are priced out of building apps for the ecosystem because there are so many different versions that they have to build for,” the person added. This kind of ecosystem will end up like what is currently seen in China, wherein there are various Android forks, and the ecosystem is vastly…
