I genuinely don't get this line of thinking. This isn't about Google or Microsoft, rather it's about the end user who is essentially a customer of both parties. IMHO, Google aren't just screwing MSFT, they are screwing users, which doesn't really hold with the image that they like to portray. It's actually rather spiteful.
How is it spiteful to the 7 people who own Windows phones?
This is Google saying "because of their behaviors, we don't want to allow them to consume our services." Microsoft is trying to weasel this into good PR for themselves, but the fact is this: Google has no obligation to people that are not making them money. It is not their responsibility to keep people buying Microsoft phones.
> "How is it spiteful to the 7 people who own Windows phones?"
That is a snide comment that reveals much.
> 'This is Google saying "because of their behaviors, we don't want to allow them to consume our services."'
That right there. That is spiteful. It's not Microsoft that they are restricting, it's Google users; the very people that use YouTube. It's certainly not the behaviour of the company that Google projects itself to be. I totally agree that Google owe Microsoft nothing, but this has the potential to do much harm to their image. A good check is to switch the protagonists around and ask yourself how you would react then. I'm not suggesting for one minute that were Microsoft to do the same it would be OK (or that indeed it is or was OK). I'm suggesting that there appears to be a double standard being applied to Microsoft from more that a few parties. Google cannot have their cake and eat it, as the saying goes...
Edit: Cleaned up my shameful grammar and spelling...
How so? It's not that popular a device.[0] If you work at Microsoft or have a significant interest in them not failing, you might want to divulge your bias here.
>That right there. That is spiteful. It's not Microsoft that they are restricting, it's Google users; the very people that use YouTube.
You're treating YouTube as if it's water. It's a business.
>A good check is to switch the protagonists around and ask yourself how you would react then.
If Microsoft cut off access to Bing from Android Phones (and if, for this example, if Bing was as ubiquitous and useful as Google Search) due to Google flagrantly violating ToS, I'd understand and be mad at Google for selling me a device and then fucking me over by locking me away from a good service through their posturing.
Microsoft is becoming less relevant, but they're still trying to act like the big bully of yesteryear.