News Google outlines Android EC compliance measures

Would a similar approach that MS took with windows and browsers not work? A popup on first start up that lets you pick what you want?

 

Hmm, was about to ask the same thing.

 

Because then Google wouldn't be able to give you the double whammy of "We'll charge you extra"* combined with the "and we'll slurp every bit of data about you we can" at the same time?

Turkeys don't vote for Christmas? Time will tell.

*ie: they'll charge the OEM and they'll pass it on to the customer...

 

Without enforced Gapp bundling (along with losing the requirement to make Android modifications open source or risk loss of access to Gapps) then funding for Android development still needs to come from somewhere.

 

How about from the cut that the Play Store takes? Or the endless advertising?

Although that may not work; it seems in the promoted "On Sale" section of the Play Store is stuffed to the gills recently with these daft "I Am Rich" apps which do sweet Fanny Adams but normally cost upwards of £200. And they're on sale for £0. Yeah, that's not suspicious much. On that note, I never used to get ads in the mobile YouTube app. Now, I'm absolutely bombarded with them. It started a couple of updates ago, so I guess Google has changed something. Or pushing their subscription service?

Other companies manage to make major money off of a "free" product - see; Red Hat, who the last time I checked were worth upwards of a billion USD - because what you're paying for is support and service. With Google services, however, the reverse is true: you are the product... or rather, every bit of information about you that they can scrape out.

 

Taking a cut out of the profit from any existing revenue stream would cause the shareholders to revolt, so a new revenue stream must be created, because remember: Even if you already make billions, the profit for the next quarter must always be higher than the last or there will be blood (exec jobs) to pay.
It sucks, but such is the world we live in.

 

If Gapps are not included, those are gone too. Samsung deploys the Samsung Store and shows Samsung Ads, and Google gets nothing.

Support and services? Well gee, I wonder what they want to charge companies to maintain the Google service infrastructure for...