Is Android a monopoly?

[Commentary] Does Android constitute an actual monopoly?

Google doesn’t make any phones, and it doesn’t force Android on anyone — phone makers choose to ship devices with that software on board. Google also isn’t fully in control of Android, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of Android smartphones being sold in China without Google’s apps or blessing. Android is famed as the open-source alternative to Apple’s closed iOS, and the two are locked in a healthy and balanced competition in the United States, with Google’s software claiming 59 percent of the market and Apple taking 38 percent. From a consumer perspective, it’s a fair fight with no monopoly in sight. The main thing that Google has any say over is which devices get to carry its Google apps and services. And if that’s a monopoly, then it seems like a just one: if you invest the time and money to develop sophisticated apps like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, and YouTube, then you should have the right to decide who gets to use them.

Things grow more interesting, however, when you consider Google’s most important app of all: the Play Store. It is the portal through which the vast majority of Android apps are obtained, and it’s the only viable competitor to Apple’s App Store.