Robert Triggs/Android Authority
TL; PhD
- Epic’s antitrust complaint against Google mentioned a private meeting between Larry Page and Steve Jobs.
- These two technology CEOs apparently discussed the partnership between Android and iOS as early as 2010.
- The purpose of highlighting this incident is to determine that the two companies have a duopoly in application distribution.
Fresh Unedited file From Epic’s lawsuit with Google, we can see some surprising details of the private meeting between Google and Apple’s former CEO.
As Politico’s antitrust reporter pointed out Leah Niren, Epic’s complaint to Google mentioned that the two technology companies maintained a close relationship, which further weakened Google’s motivation to compete, innovate and invest in application distribution, as it benefited from cooperating with its “rival” Apple.
The announcement was followed by the details of the 2010 meeting between Larry Page and Steve Jobs. The two tech giants apparently talked about the “partnership” between Android and iOS. According to reports, Page told Jobs: “There will always be places where we compete, and there will also be places where we cooperate,” allegedly in the context of making similar policies for developers.
Our vision is that we work like a company
The complaint further accuses Google and Apple of being “comfortable duopoly”, providing developers with the same terms and changing them at the same time, rather than truly competing with each other. To this end, the document cited some notes collected after a meeting between Google and Apple executives. “Our vision is that we work like a company,” the note excerpt reads.
At the same time, the complaint also claims that Google encourages mobile phone manufacturers to abandon third-party application stores. According to the text, the company launched a “premium device plan” in 2019. If smartphone OEMs agree to ship the device in any app store other than the Google Play store, they will get a larger share of search revenue.
The mobile phones under the plan received 12% of Google’s search revenue instead of the standard 8%. Google also provides companies such as LG and Motorola with a commission of 3% to 6% that customers spend on the Google Play store through their mobile phones.
To further prove the dominance of the Play Store, the complaint points out that by May 2020, many of the world’s largest and most popular Android OEMs have agreed to Google Play to monopolize most of their new Android devices. Approximately 70% of new devices from Chinese mobile phone manufacturers such as Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus are in line with Google’s “Premier” plan, while Sony (50%) and Xiaomi (40%) have less commitments to these terms.