It's about the contractual obligations Google forced on makers. What the user do...

endisneigh · on Sept 22, 2022

No, what I mean is that manufacturers don’t have to include the play store if they don’t like Google’s requirements around using it?

makeitdouble · on Sept 22, 2022

Google forced them to take the Play Store and search widget (including default search engine) as a condition to get Play Services.

Play Services is required by a majority of android apps and developping and maintening a compatible system layer is just out of reach of most(all?) device makers.

endisneigh · on Sept 22, 2022

Yes, but my point is - can’t they they just not use the play store at all like lineageos?

Ultimately Google will always have control over android if what you’re saying is true unless an alternative ecosystem is created

stale2002 · on Sept 22, 2022

> can’t they they just not use the play store at all like lineageos?

This changes nothing about if google's behavior was illegally tying two products together.

You are bringing up a non-sequitor that does not change the law.

makeitdouble · on Sept 23, 2022

You’re asking if Motorola can’t just sell a phone that cannot run most of published android apps out of the box.

> unless an alternative ecosystem is created

That can’t happen while Google is free to do anything to crush potential competitors (they’re also found bullying makers out of bundling stuff like third party stores on their phones, and the chinese makers seem to be the only ones getting away with it), so the only way out is basically to lawsuit the hell out of the situation.