Google Reportedly Gave Smartphone Manufacturers Extra Cash To Ditch Third-party App Stores

Google is also amongst the list of OEM manufacturers or tech companies to have an ongoing Holy War with Epic Games, whereby the Search Giant has reportedly practiced unethical business schemes to remain the sole distributor of digital software via Google Play Store, per Epic complaints.

Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Google attempts to join the big leagues of big Stores that distribute digital software. Epic Games is also a developer and a digital marketplace for distributing digital software — the tech company is focused on the Gaming business.

Still, Epic’s antitrust lawsuits claim Google has been sabotaging third-party Store platforms from featuring on its operating system. Although the way Epic paints the picture about Google’s Play Store being a supremacist in the digital software marketplace seems biased.

It’s worth noting that other OEM manufacturers sold their rights when they decided to accept Google’s offer that restricts third-party Store marketplace from featuring on the Android platform.

Remember when Google hosted the Premier Device Program in 2019, the Search Giant introduced an enticing term on how other OEM manufacturers would feature its Android OS on their smartphone brands. Google agreed to spare some of its revenue for smartphones that have only the Play Store and no other third-party Stores.

For contrast, Google’s terms made smartphone manufacturers oblige to its regulation at their will at the expense of making extra cash. Google’s Play Store features on every Android device as an inbuilt app. OEM manufacturers are also obligated to disallow their devices from approving APK installation packages by default.

In other words, Google promised OEM manufacturers a 12% share of their YoY revenue — an exclusive deal for smartphone makers that accept the Search Giant’s deal. While big OEM manufacturers such as Motorola, and LG got a more lucrative deal. Google offered them another 6%, a fraction of what their users spend on the Google Play Store.

Meanwhile, Epic strongly disputed Google’s Premium Device Program was a public event. Epic Games claims the Search Giant discreetly hosted the show — it is pretty obvious the program was exclusive for OEMs only. Epic has reportedly been declined by other smartphone makers to include its digital gaming software marketplace alongside Google’s Play Store.

“Google has sought to conceal its most restrictive anticompetitive conduct by, among other things,” per Epic’s complaints. In the agreements themselves a provision restricting signatories from making ‘any public statement regarding [the] Agreement without the other party’s prior written approval.”

Epic Games also claimed the extra cash Google offered also prohibited OEM manufacturers from uttering a word to the public about their agreement.