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Is Android really free? Report reveals the truth behind Google Mobile Services..
| Posted on January 24, 2014 at 8:10 AM |
The Android OS, as we know it, is free and
unlike the more totalitarian iOS, is an open-
source platform where developers have the
freedom to create apps or services of their
choice. From a user?s perspective it seems
very easy for a manufacturer to develop an
Android device as the OS is there for anyone
to use. But in reality, things are not as easy
or ?free? as they seem.
The Android OS in itself may indeed be free,
but none of the apps under Google?s suite of
services are free, The Guardian reports . Apps
like Gmail, Hangouts, Maps and YouTube
among others are all a part of a license
called ?Google Mobile Service (GMS).? A
manufacturer planning on developing a
smartphone/smartphones running on Android
first needs to buy the license from Google. It
is also illegal for a company to offer the Play
Store on their smartphones without the
license.
In terms of revenues, quite similar to how
Microsoft charges OEMs to use Windows or
Windows Phones, Google charges companies
for this license on a per-device basis. In
other words, a company aiming on shipping
100,000 units will need to pay around 75
cents for each device, or $75,000 in total, the
report reveals. According to recent numbers,
Google is said to sell around a million GMS
licenses every day.
The report further adds that the process of
acquiring a license is not as easy as it
sounds. There is also no set of rules or a
pre-determined process and the whole
activating of a GMS license is at Google?s
discretion. So essentially, Google decides
whom to give the license and whom not to.
This and the fact that the source code for the
entire OS is available online on Google?s
servers has resulted in low-level OEMs who
miss out on the license to illegally offer the
Play Store on their devices. Since this is very
small percentage of companies, Google
without the adequate manpower, often turns
a blind eye..
Categories: Technology
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