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Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

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    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “One time we launched a tablet which didn’t have all the compelling apps that Apple had, and it was listed as a shortcoming and affected our success in the market.”

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitting one of Google’s many failed tablets over the years in order to help build a market definition that Google competes with Apple rather than other Android-based companies.

    Pichai also says that “Samsung gets to keep the profit from these phones” and that “we give revshare not just to Samsung, but to telecom carriers in certain cases who take the product to market, which is not true in Apple’s case.”

    He says Android makes smartphones more affordable than Apple does as well.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Android was the first to design larger phones, now it’s the first to design foldable phones... all these innovations help attract developers to it.”

    Part of Pichai’s answer to a question about how Google helps the Android ecosystem compete with Apple. The first part began, “We’ve made it rich for developers to write applications.”

    Pichai says (after being led) that the board of directors listening to presentations like the one about Play’s operating profit “has full context.”

    “They understand that this is the view from a Google Play-based standpoint, because that’s the only cost the Google Play team can directly control.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “There were rotary dial phones, we waited years to get access to one, and getting access to that phone changed our lives.”

    Google has begun its questioning of its own CEO by pointing out the value it has brought to the world and his own relatively humble background growing up in Chennai in the south of India.

    He got to mention Android Go, an effort to bring Android phones to more of the world, and how Google Play efforts include the “security and safety of the platform.”

    He’s now suggesting developers on Google Play pay 15 percent or less, and yet: “We invest 10s of thousands of engineers to build Android, which we provide free of charge to OEMs around the world and I think the model serves our mission.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Google Play was “one of the most profitable businesses” in the world in the first half of 2020.

    In a July 2020 presentation to the Alphabet board of directors, Pichai confirmed today, Google Play had a 65 percent operating margin, for a $4.4 billion operating profit in H1 2020. That was 33 percent up compared to H1 2019.

    Play was “one of the world’s most largest commerce platforms with >250M people transacting in a year, and also one of the most profitable businesses (>60% margin) and a key contributor the Alphabet P/L,” a presentation slide reads.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Sure enough, Epic’s attempting to show Sundar’s hypocrisy.

    “We definitely had concerns at that time yes,” says Pichai, after Epic’s attorney brings up how he penned a 2009 blog post suggesting Microsoft had an unfair advantage with Internet Explorer because it was tied to the operating system.

    Yet Google requires effectively all Android phones to preinstall Google Play, set it on the default homescreen, and keep users from deleting it with its MADA contracts.

    Earlier today, Epic asked, “Currently today, there’s not a single OEM selling a phone that hasn’t signed the MADA, right?” Pichai answered yes — while noting some OEMs have tried in the past.

    Epic pointed out that they tried and failed. “Because consumers value what we provide with the MADA,” Pichai answered.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    In case you’re just joining us.

    Hey! I’m Sean Hollister, and I’ve been live in the courtroom for Epic v. Google since Monday of last week. What’s going on? These might help:

    👉 A quick primer to the whole trial

    👉 What we’re doing here today

    👉 Our bingo cards: so far, we’ve hit MADA, RSA, Sideloading, Right on the Homescreen, OEMs, Fake Privilege, and CHATS!

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Epic is still chasing web apps with Sundar on the stand.

    On October 28th, 2013, Google’s Joe Marini privately suggested that “Google isn’t doing a very good job of promoting the web store,” writing:

    Unlike other app platforms such as IOS and Android, where their respective stores are the “only game in town” to get content for those platforms, it is entirely possible to live a happy life as a Chrome user without ever having to visit the store. As a result, we have to work harder to draw users in, but our existing marketing efforts don’t do anything to mention the store.

    Will Epic try to suggest this influenced Google’s later thinking? We’ll find out after a 15-minute break.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “You just went to a website and used it.”

    It seems Epic is trying to draw a difficult link between 1) Google not having a scary “Unknown Sources” install flow for its Chrome Web Store — and offering a low 5 percent fee — and 2) what’s happening with Android sideloading.

    “This is apples and oranges, right?” says Pichai. “There was no downloading of a web application; you would just go to the site and use it.” This is basically true: web apps are a thing.

    We’re watching an ancient video of young Pichai announcing that web store’s payments functionality. (He used to be in charge of Chrome, before he rose up the ranks.)

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “So a user going to AmazonAppStore.com is treated exactly the same as I’ll-steal-your-info.com?” Yes, says Pichai.

    “That’s right. We don’t distinguish between the URLs,” says Google’s CEO.

    We’re talking about sideloading friction, which Epic argues (and Google admitted internally) kept a sideloaded version of Fortnite from being financially viable.

    Epic v. Google: everything we learned in Fortnite court

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Friction can have benefits, but yes.”

    Pichai says yes, its Unknown Sources warnings do create friction for those who want to sideload apps on Android instead of downloading them from the Play Store.

    Check “sideloading” on your bingo card.

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