Back in July, Google was slapped with a whopping $5 billion fine for breaking anti-trust laws regarding the Android operating system. Google was proven guilty of abusing its power on Android by forcing device makers to include several Google apps in their phones.
Google, who had earlier filed an appeal at the General Court of the European Union, has come up with an alternate solution to gather revenue from its apps. Starting on October 29th, Google will charge a licensing fee for bundling its apps on smartphone manufacturers.
Phone makers who wish to sell their Android phone and services in Europe will have to pay a licensing fee to Google’s parent company Alphabet, for pre-installed apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, etc.
This includes Google Play Store as well which is essentially the backbone of Android. Google Play Store brings million of apps and customization to Android. Google also confirmed separate licenses for the Google Search app and GoogleChrome.
Google doesn’t generate revenue from Android by keeping it open-source and free. For a long time, it has made money from ads and services from Google search and Google Chrome.
“The pre-installation of Google Search and Chrome together with our other apps helped us fund the development and free distribution of Android” Google vice president of platform said in the blog post.
However, that’s likely to change because of new EU vs. Google developments. Since Google can’t force its apps on smartphone manufactures anymore, it is now finding another way to create revenue with the help of a licensing fee.
The new changes will likely have a major stir-up in the Android community. We might see new Google Apps alternatives coming into the spotlight. As of now, the new changes apply to the European Economic Area only which includes 28 EU countries.
Also Read: How To Use Android Without Google: Google Services Alternatives For 2018
