Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by Joeri on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:53AM (#6652410)

No, iphone and windows phone are the alternatives to google's > 80% hegemony at this point. Still, google is a far nicer market owner than apple or microsoft ever were. They don't abuse their dominant position, which is why their competitors are forced to take private legal action instead of running to the government for help.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by cloudwalking on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:02AM (#6652417)

Google doesn't have >80% of the market. Android has >80% of the market. Google does not control Android. Yes, Google provides a lot of services for Android users, but Android works fine without Google services.

Everybody is so quick to forget about "Android fragmentation," but fragmentation is a clear indicator of Google's lack of control over Android.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by Joeri on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:31AM (#6652485)

You can fork android and not license the google services, but it means doing without youtube, maps and chrome. That's a horrible experience.

In reality almost everyone nicely complies with google's compatibility definition, constraining how far they can fork android, just in order to get access to google's closed source apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Google%20Inc...

Only amazon has managed to make a viable usable fork of android that complies with legal requirements, and the amount of work it took them was prohibitive for anyone not on amazon's scale.

Android as OS is open source, but android as experience is very much under google's control. Like i said though, they have been quite benevolent, because they view android as a vehicle to get you to use the google services.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fpgeek on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:14AM (#6652612)

> You can fork android and not license the google services, but it means doing without youtube, maps and chrome. That's a horrible experience.

Not to hundreds of millions of Chinese Android users.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by ansgri on Friday November 01, 2013 @01:52PM (#6655190)

Same in Russia, where Yandex presents a very viable alternative. Their maps, for instance, are better.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by king_jester on Friday November 01, 2013 @08:46AM (#6653294)

> In reality almost everyone nicely complies with google's compatibility definition, constraining how far they can fork android, just in order to get access to google's closed source apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Google%20Inc....

The point of the CCD [1] is to ensure that new devices can run a test suite that ensures they work correctly with Android as it currently exists. CCD isn't just about Google Play and Google Play Services, its about the fundamental functioning of the OS.

[1]: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrust...

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by Alphasite_ on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:07AM (#6652595)

Depends where you live, i'm pretty sure Google's Chinese services are pretty dire compared to the native alternatives.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by katbyte on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:32AM (#6652683)

well at least you can say android can and has been forked, you can't say the same about iOS or windows..

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by psbp on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:19AM (#6652453)

So who picks up the slack if Google developers aren't contributing to Android?

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by ishansharma on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:07AM (#6652430)

Isn't it more like "they can't abuse their dominant position" because Samsung etc. can just fork Android in that case and go away. Yes, it will take resources but Amazon has already done it.

I don't think they are more responsible, they have to be this way. When given dominance, they also use it to get you signed up for other products. See Google+, it is not is search, you need it on Youtube and what not!

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by gutnor on Friday November 01, 2013 @08:47AM (#6653297)

Amazon was in a unique position to do it. MS or Apple could do it too but they have their own backyard to tend.

Samsung is a hardware giant. They suck at software and can barely handle a thin customization layer on top of Android and anyway they seem more interested in flooding the market with hardware rather than consolidating.

The other Android players are not making any money, building the backend infrastructure to compete with Google is a billion dollar type project.

It also takes time to determine what is abuse and what is not. Especially in behind doors deals. The case of Google threatening licensee to lose their license if they ship unrelated product Google does not like would definitively be abuse plain and simple. But as most things people discuss on the net, that's just based on rumors, who knows the real dynamic at play.

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