Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by dahfizz on Thursday August 29, 2019 @08:08AM (#20828741)

> The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it.

The only way of identifying a monopoly is to see if they have (very close to) 100% market share.

What you're talking about is a company with market power. Incidentally, this is also what the FTC regulates. Being a monopoly is 100% legal as long as you don't abuse your market position. And you can abuse your market position without being a monopoly.

Maybe you think that's pedantic, but I think it's an important distinction. Google is not a monopoly - they have significant competition in every market they're in. But they are still very abusive in wielding their power.

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Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by Aeolun on Thursday August 29, 2019 @08:57AM (#20829035)

I do not think a market share of 90% in most markets is ‘significant competition’, especially when the markup on any non-google phone can easily be 1000%

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Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by dahfizz on Thursday August 29, 2019 @09:28AM (#20829282)

If you created a startup that grew to take 10% of a global market, would you consider your business to be insignificant?

> especially when the markup on any non-google phone can easily be 1000%.

I'm not really sure I understand. The newest Google pixel and iPhone are similarly priced. Unless by "Google phone" you mean Android, in which case yes apple lacks choice on the low end but 10x is still a bit of an exaggeration.

iOS also has >20% market share globally, while we are arguing about numbers. This gets back to my "significant competition" remark. Are you arguing that Apple is insignificant?

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Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by Miraste on Thursday August 29, 2019 @02:24PM (#20832229)

10x is not at all an exaggeration. The cheapest iPhone is $750, and there are dozens of Android phones that cost less than $75. Not good ones, but millions of people do buy them, and for those people Google is effectively a monopoly.

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Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by Aeolun on Thursday August 29, 2019 @10:06AM (#20829588)

I’m arguing that one competitor is not significant competition.

This competitor is also in a completely different market segment.

Is there anything but Google (for this purpose I count anything with Google Play) in the <$400 market?

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Re:Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-s... by trickstra on Thursday August 29, 2019 @11:09AM (#20830163)

Which competitor do you have in mind? Users cannot install Android on Apple devices and vice versa, your app repository is decided at the moment you buy the device, and I don't see any other competing Play Store. Not to mention - have you ever tried to disable Google Play Services in your Android phone?

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