• conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago

    The play store is their monopoly that they abuse. There’s a refresh rate requirement to distribute your device with the play store.

    Otherwise, the user has to go to a Google website page from the device, sign into a Google account, and copy paste serial information of the device in order to be allowed to install the store. That’s not something normal customers can do, and it massively impeded the growth of the Android reader space.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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      10 days ago

      There’s a refresh rate requirement to distribute your device with the play store.

      Is there? I’ve seen lots of Android e-readers that are way less. Maybe just because they’re Chinese and don’t give a shit. Presumably that requirement is to ensure a positive experience for Android users. Android is obviously not intended to be used for e-readers.

      Regardless, a limitation of your OS is absolutely not in any way more anti-competitive than not distributing an OS at all. I feel like this is pretty straightforward…

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        You have to manually enable the play store on all of those devices. It’s why they’re so niche and only made by Chinese companies.

        It’s not in any way a limitation of the OS. It’s a business decision that is using their market position as the only source of most Android apps in order to control what manufacturers are able to make and sell.

        And again, your core concept isn’t just flawed. It completely lacks understanding of what antitrust is. You can make decisions that only affect your own hardware. You cannot claim to be open and use that “openness” to make yourself the standard, then use that market position to pick winners and losers between your “partners” using that product, especially when you’re also one of them. That’s anticompetitive. Google wants all the benefits of being “open” while completely dictating the entire market.