Looking at the comment below enumerating the reasons for the ruling, I don't see any overlap between what Google is being fined for and Apple's business practices. Apple isn't forcing 3rd party OEMs to install Safari on their hardware in order to run Apple apps because Apple makes all their own hardware. iOS is not an open source OS meant to be available to third parties, and Apple doesn't have a search engine to pay carriers to mandate.
>requiring mobile manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Google Chrome browser and requiring them to set Google Search as default search service on their devices, as a condition to license certain Google proprietary apps;
>preventing manufacturers from selling smart mobile devices running on competing operating systems based on the Android open source code;
>giving financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-install Google Search on their devices.
You missed my point. Effectively there is more than one kind of monopoly and Apple has just as much control over the mobile space as Google does and abuses it in their own way by pushing their browser, disallowing third party app stores and alternative default mail, maps, etc. Expect to see more of this as Apple starts to rely more and more on services revenue.
Apple currently pulls in an astonishing 87% of mobile profits. Why on earth should they be excluded from anti-trust scrutiny?
Because they don't control the devices of 87% of users. Their profits are good for them and all, but have no direct bearing on their ability to exert unfair influence, especially in other markets (e.g. search engines).
They have plenty of influence for developers, which means they have influence for consumers. They have a huge say in what apps and websites get built and how because everybody has to play by their rules to get on their lucrative platform. Do you think you could launch a successful search engine today that wasn't available on iOS?
Take Safari as a case in point. Apple doesn't allow other browsers on their platform which means webdevs have been limited to the parts of the web stack that Apple supports. Which, until recently, was falling pretty far behind the state of the art.
Marketshare is marketshare and the numbers are clear. Yes, Apple is more influential than its marketshare indicates, but that is hard to quantify (especially legally) and in any case probably not as large an effect as you think.
They are not excluded. They are just not breaking the law that says you cannot force manufacturers to bundle your market-leading-services to gain an unfair advantage in other markets.
Apple might be breaking other laws, but not this one. Google is breaking this law. Hence the fine.
>requiring mobile manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Google Chrome browser and requiring them to set Google Search as default search service on their devices, as a condition to license certain Google proprietary apps;
>preventing manufacturers from selling smart mobile devices running on competing operating systems based on the Android open source code;
>giving financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-install Google Search on their devices.