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The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android


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2019 May 24, 8:50am   1,070 views  1 comment

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://onezero.medium.com/the-huawei-disaster-reveals-googles-iron-grip-on-android-b1ccee34504d

Google’s Android is pitched as the open, free-for-everyone alternative to the iPhone. However, to comply with a recent order from the U.S. government, Google pulled the Chinese tech company and smartphone manufacturer Huawei’s license to use the proprietary Google software that sits on top of Android. In doing so, Google quietly exposed the powerful control it has over its supposedly open phone ecosystem.

Most Android manufacturers — including Huawei — are what’s known as Google hardware partners. This relationship lets them build their phones around a collection of Google products, from apps like Google Maps and Assistant, to under-the-hood tools like location services or push notifications. While Google gives off the impression that Android is open and available to everyone, these services represent a quiet control that the company doesn’t often enforce over its hardware partners — though, as it has now proven, it certainly can. ...

The distinction between using Android and being a Google partner seems messy from the outside, but “Android” technically refers to the core operating system that covers basic things like making phone calls or using the camera. The freely available version of Android is called the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and a company doesn’t have to be a partner to use it. ...

According to Bryan Pon, PhD, mobile platform researcher and co-founder of the data analytics firm Caribou Data, this gives Google a lot of control over its platform. “Consumers are attached to the Google products and services that sit on top of the operating system,” explains Pon. “Google has very strong proprietary control over those, and in that sense wields tremendous power, irrespective of the operating system.”

Additionally, Huawei, and Google’s other partners, have to include a collection of developer tools called Google Play Services. These background tools let app developers easily do things like create push notifications, embed maps in their apps, or get a GPS location. Most Android apps distributed through the Google Play Store rely on some of these tools to provide features that are too expensive or difficult for every developer to build themselves.

As Pon explains, some of these tools are crucial features that would normally be part of an operating system. “They’re actually taking functionality out of the core platform,” Pon says. “They’re leaving Android open source, more and more, just a shell. And that core functionality is now part of just proprietary Google services.” Google does this to make it easier to update important features without waiting for a big Android update, but the result consolidates Google’s power over its platform. ...

Beyond Huawei’s problems — and beyond the reality that geopolitics will play an increasing role in the tech business — this situation reveals a truth that Google has downplayed for years. While Android — the stripped down, open-source operating system — may be available to everyone, all of the Google pieces that make most Android phones worthwhile are locked behind a partner program. Google might let almost everyone into its exclusive club, but it reserves the right to kick them out. ...

Google can reaffirm its commitment to being “open” and “free” all it wants, but ultimately it’s still a gatekeeper.

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1   Patrick   2019 May 25, 1:50pm  

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says
Another reason why I'm following Sailfish and have it running on some old hardware now - a Moto G3. Little guy rocks again!


Thanks for the tip @APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch

https://jolla.com/#SailfishOS

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