 European regulators have hit Google with a €4.3 billion ($5 billion) antitrust fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system. The fine was announced on Wednesday after the EU found the US company guilty of using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. Google's Android operating system is the world’s most popular mobile software system, and is installed on more than 80 percent of smartphones globally. The EU said that Google must make competition fairer and allow smaller players to earn. The penalty from the European Commission is the highest antitrust violation fine that has ever been imposed on a company for breaching EU competition rules. The previous record was a €2.4 billion penalty on Google for manipulating search results to promote its own price comparison services over those from competitors. Shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet slid more than one percent in US premarket trading. The European Commission continues the investigation on a third Google antitrust case. Competition authorities have said Google could have used its AdSense advertising service to thwart rivals. Google is accused of blocking rivals in online search advertising.  The Telegraph reports that the EU is expected to hand down a massive fine to Google Tuesday or Wednesday this week to punish the company for abusing its Android monopoly to strengthen its search empire, benefitting the company to the tune of more than $20 billion. Last year the EU fined Google $2.7 billion for its abuse of its search dominance to push its comparison shopping service. The European Commission is empowered to fine Google up to 10% of its annual turn-over, or around $11 billion, and the new fine is expected to eclipse that sum. Besides the fine, the EU is expected to ask Google to suggest remedies to correct the situation, which uses agreements with OEMs to reduce access by rivals to the powerful default positions in the Android operating system. With Microsoft however increasingly building their platform on Android, the ability to offer competing services without losing access to the Google Play Store, for example, would be an ideal solution, allowing Microsoft for example to partner with OEMs such as Samsung to replace the Google Search bar with Bing and Google Mail with Outlook. If forced to unbundle their services from their apps, for example, Microsoft could also ship an Android phone with the Google Play Store, but with Edge and Launcher set as the default applications on the device. Get caught on OUR FORUM.  Windows 10 Redstone 5 has been in development since February and there still hasn’t been a single ISO for the Insiders who want a clean installation. Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft for the Windows Insider Program Team says that Windows 10 Redstone 6 ISOs are planned and the first ISO image will be published with the next Slow Ring build. Earlier this month, the software giant released the first Windows 10 Redstone 5 build to Slow Ring Insiders, more than two months after releasing the April 2018 Update to the public. It appears that the Redmond-based tech giant is planning to release a new slow ring build along with ISO files. It’s indeed a good news for the Insiders, developers and everyone else who is planning to clean install Redstone 5 update on the secondary device or virtual min to test new features. We'll keep this updated on OUR FORUM. |
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