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Report: Google argues the Huawei ban would hurt its Android monopoly
The Trump administration would probably describe its Huawei export ban as a move that improves national security by keeping China's pet telecom company out of the US market. According to a report from The Financial Times, Google's recent discussions with the US government actually argue that the Huawei ban is bad for national security. Google is reportedly asking for an exemption from the export ban.
The argument, reportedly, is that Huawei is currently dependent on Google for its Android smartphone software, and that dependence is a good thing for the US. The Financial Times quotes "one person with knowledge of the conversations" as saying, "Google has been arguing that by stopping it from dealing with Huawei, the US risks creating two kinds of Android operating system: the genuine version and a hybrid one. The hybrid one is likely to have more bugs in it than the Google one, and so could put Huawei phones more at risk of being hacked, not least by China."
[...] Google's control over the Android ecosystem—even when devices don't use the Google apps—means there is still some level of security and updateability going into these devices. Google's first argument in that Financial Times report is that more secure devices are better for national security.
The second argument in the above quote is that a ban would "create two kinds of Android" and hurt Google's monopoly over Android. If you're a smartphone manufacturer looking for a smartphone OS, Android is the only game in town. The latest worldwide OS market share numbers from the IDC show an 86.6/13.3 percent share between Android and iOS, respectively, with "Other" clocking in at 0.0 percent market share. Taken as a whole, the US has a smartphone OS monopoly.
More secure devices (used by foreign targets for NSA hacking) are better for national security? Nice try, Google.
Previously: Huawei Working on its Own OS to Prepare for "Worst-Case Scenario" of Being Deprived of Android
Huawei Hysteria is a False Alarm, Culture Secretary Tells MPs
Google Pulls Huawei's Android License
The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google's Iron Grip On Android
Huawei Calls on U.S. to Adjust its Approach to Tackle Cybersecurity Effectively
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday June 09 2019, @08:49PM
The article says Google is trying preserve "Google's monopoly over Android". Which is fine, actually, because Google owns Android as a brand. The source code, AOSP, is FOSS, and anyone can fork it and start their own thing. They can't call it Android though, because Google owns that brand.
Being a monopoly is not illegal. Abusing a monopoly position to shut out competitors is. In the context of Android, the big gray area isn't Android itself, but Google's suite of apps and the Play Store. One would have to argue that Google is abusing its Play Store and Android validation requirements to shut out competitors (AOSP forks), which to me isn't a clear case.
Ignoring the inevitably biased reporting on the discussions, I suspect that the actual contents of the discussions is phrased like: banning Trademarked Android in China will make it likely for an untrademarked Android (AOSP fork) to become popular in China, and that's a huge risk for the US (and the rest of the world) because of the nature of Communist Party of China's brand of politics (Tiananmen anyone?). A Chinese "Android" will definitely be backdoored by the CPC. So Trademarked Android would be portrayed as a "monopoly" of convenience (it's easier to use good thing that exists) rather than a monopoly that maintains its position through abuse. I'm sure Google's lawyers aren't that stupid.
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