How Google fights competitors – Business – Kommersant

Google positions its opposition to “forks” as a way to “ensure a consistent experience for developers, manufacturers, and users.” It was with this rationale that the company in 2012 forced Acer to abandon plans to launch a phone in China on Aliyun OS from Alibaba, capable of running Android applications. Non-Android systems are not subject to the Google ban. In the 2010s, this was used, in particular, by HTC (it released Windows Phone phones in parallel with Android devices) and Samsung (it developed its own Tizen OS; now it is used only on the company’s TVs).

The conditions that Google imposes on the licensees of its services have repeatedly become the cause of claims from antitrust regulators. In particular, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2021 ordered Google to change the rules for licensing components for Android. In January 2023, after an unsuccessful attempt to challenge the regulator’s decision in the Supreme Court, Google announced that it would allow manufacturers to choose apps to preinstall and release “forks” of Android. But special rules apply only when a separate regional agreement is signed, and devices can only be sold in India, The Times of India clarifies.