[tuxracer]

> nobody if forced (except for perhaps android users) to use Chrome

Unlike iOS you can install different browsers on Android directly from the Play Store. These can actually be different browsers with their own rendering engines not just alternative UIs on top of Chrome. Firefox on Android for example uses the actual Firefox rendering engine, not Chrome.

[ekianjo]

You can, but by default you get Chrome, which is about the same thing people were fighting Microsoft over in the Netscape-IE days, but this time on Android.

[tuxracer]

That case created a misconception that refuses to die... There's nothing inherently illegal about having a default app or product. There's also nothing inherently illegal about having a popular app or product.

The reason Microsoft got in trouble is because it was not only found that they had a monopoly in a particular market, but that they obtained some of that market share illegally through shady contracts effectively forbidding OEMs from offering alternative OSes, etc... They were then found to have used that illegally obtained monopoly to take over a completely different market in part by bundling IE with Windows and punishing OEMs who sought to including alternate browsers and completely disallowing the removal of IE.

[pound]

one more thing to mention about that default chrome on android: you cannot install ad-blocker there.

you may install firefox and still will have a lot of time links opened in built-in chrome, on android

[oh_sigh]

The difference being that Apple has a huge percentage of the market share and Android isn't the only game in town.

[ocdtrekkie]

"Huge"? In the EU, where the current investigations are going, Apple is barely a blip on the radar. Windows Mobile has had better traction in some parts of Europe than the iPhone.

Android has over an 85% global market share. And for OEMs, there is NO other game in town, since iOS isn't licensable.

[ekianjo]

Apple only has a significant share in a few geographies, for the most part the world has turned to Android already.

[ojbyrne]

I see Firefox and Chrome and several other browsers in the iOS AppStore.

[jedmeyers]

Those are just UI shells that will use the same built-in rendering engine.

[hooluupig]

They are just themes of safari.

[dep_b]

But they rely on the browser engine Apple ships.

[ec109685]

So, they can still have their own search engine configuration.