Technology giant Google on Friday said the Competition Commission of India's antitrust directives regarding how Android is licensed will increase harm to the users while also making smartphones less affordable. As per the order, Google will have to allow third-party app stores on its operating system, which has a 97 percent market share in India, as well as not force smartphone makers to use its own applications by default.
In a blog post, Google said the "CCI’s order strikes a blow at the ecosystem-wide efforts to accelerate digital adoption in the country", while adding that it is "appealing these directions before Indian courts".
It must be noted here that Google has been hit by or faces similar antitrust judgments by the competent authorities in the European Union and USA.
In the post, which is
addressed directly to users, the tech giant said over the past 15 years, through Android’s free open source software and suite of high quality apps, Google has helped device manufacturers make smartphones more affordable by a vast margin. "Today, any user can get their hands on a fully functional smartphone at less than Rs 6,000 from numerous brands," the company said.
Google claimed that CCI's order will:
Expose users to increased cyberthreat if they use devices running "incompatible forks (versions) of Android" — essentially versions other than which the tech giant has licenses
Raise the cost of smartphones as the onus of improving cybersecurity and protecting users will fall on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or smartphone companies
Make it a skewed playing field for developers, especially the smaller ones, who may not have the resources to build and maintain apps across multiple Android forks."While Google holds itself accountable for the apps on Play Store and scans for malware as well compliance with local laws, the same checks may not be in place for apps sideloaded from other sources," the company added.
"This is sobering for innovation in the Indian digital ecosystem, whose greatest success stories are of small disruptors creating a better product and winning the user," the company warned.
"India is at a juncture where we must come together to bring down barriers to access and make safe and secure smartphones available to all, supported by a flourishing digital ecosystem. Foundational disruptions at this stage could set us back years and undo the deep investments and effort made by OEMs, developers and the industry overall," Google added.
However, Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder and CEO of Indus OS, which positions itself as a competing Android-based app storefront to the Play Store, dismissed Google's claim and said CCI's ruling will, in fact, have the opposite effect.
"The CCI ruling against Google very clearly encourages software innovation, which will only help bring down the prices of smartphone devices, thus ensuring even further digital penetration as opposed to stalling the growth of the Android ecosystem by pushing up the device price point," Deshmukh said.
He further accused Google of scuttling Indian entrepreneurs in the Android ecosystem with "unfair and restrictive Google policies". "The CCI ruling against Google is a step towards ushering in the next phase of digital revolution in the country," he added.
First Published: Jan 13, 2023 8:12 PM IST
