India is one of Google’s biggest markets, with 97% of over 600 million smartphones running on Android OS in compare to just 75% of all 550 million smartphones in Europe run on Android.
On 25th January 2023, Google said that it would let Indian Smartphone manufacturers license selective applications for pre-installation.
Google will also let users set their prefer search engine as the default one.
This is a major change considering Google has the default search engine on every Android smartphone since forever.
Google’s recent decisions can be attribute to the Indian Supreme Court’s statement from last week, where the court said that Google is abusing its standing in the Indian market.
Supreme Court is the highest authority of power in the country, and receiving a ruling from the same force Google to announce these changes.
This will radically change the Google’s marketing strategies in India, especially how Google operates in the Indian market, a sector which holds a lot of growth potential.
Google App Gets a Major Material You Redesign; Looks More Better
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Following are the major changes for Google in India
- OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) now be able to license individual Google apps for pre-installation on their smartphones
- New users will be prompt to choose their default search engine when they set up their devices.
- The Android compatibility requirements will be modified so that Google partners can build non-compatible or fork variants.
- Users can purchase in-app digital content through choice billing, which will allow them to pick between Google Play’s billing system or an alternative of their own choice.
- The way applications are sideload onto Android devices has change to minimize security risks. This would include applications download directly from developers’ websites.
- Google will expand their online help resources to include details of Google Play Services and the application of their service fees.
Google said in its blog post that implementation of all these changes would be a tedious task for the company, since Google has a massive ecosystem of its own.
It also said that the company would require a lot of coordinate effort from various OEMs and developers in order to make these changes possible.
Indian Government has quite strict with Google in terms of market positioning and strategies.
In October 2023, Google was fine $161 Million (Rs. 1337.76 crores) for having restrictions on device manufacturers pertaining to the pre-installation of applications and search engine exclusivity.
Google had hope to block the implementation of these directives by CCI (Competition Commission of India), emphasizing that it would have to amend arrangements with more than 1100 device makers across the country.
As Supreme Court of India refuse to comply with Google at all.
