Google issued a statement last night after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) shared a summary of the request it is considering following a judge’s finding that Google has a monopoly through the way Google searches are distributed. did. Google’s statement addressed several proposals made by the Department of Justice, including what the future holds for Chrome and Android.
We’ve linked Google’s full statement below, but the most interesting (and relevant to us) part is the section titled “Separating Chrome and Android will break them, and much more.” The idea of Chrome and Android no longer being part of Google is far-fetched, but it could be in the future.
In its filing, the Justice Department said it would seek “behavioral and structural remedies” to “prevent Google from using products like Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage in Google Search and Google Search-related products.” He said he is considering whether it is necessary. And that could mean Google will be forced to sell parts of its businesses, such as Chrome and Android.
As you can imagine, Google thinks this is bad. I think the biggest part of their argument is this line: “Few companies will have the ability or incentive to keep it open source or invest at the same level as we do.” In other words, if we were forced to sell, we don’t believe that someone like Google would (or could) continue to develop for either platform. They also believe that treating Chrome and Android as separate businesses would increase the cost of the devices and give Apple even more of an advantage in the US.
This is such a grand idea to think about that we don’t know how this will actually turn out or what will happen to Android. Will a company like Microsoft buy Android and keep it at the Google level? Will it become an independent organization that needs to find a way to make money? Will it make companies like Samsung even more insular? Will this lead to a regression in the ecosystem? I don’t know.
And the flip side of this is that the Department of Justice is more focused on behavioral remedies than structural remedies. That means Google needs to keep Android and Chrome less exclusivity.
We will closely monitor this.
