A complaint filed earlier this week accuses of deliberately conspiring with device manufacturers to make its search engine the default on Android phones tablets, thus driving up the cost of those particular devices. The suit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District court for the Northern District of California. It alleges that made agreements with manufacturers to require its suite of apps to be placed front–center on the Android operating system. It specifically refers to the Mobile Application Distribution Agreements (MADA) references companies like Samsung HTC uses the HTC EVO 3D Galaxy SIII. “Because consumers want access to ’s products, due to ’s power in the U.S. market for general hheld search, has unrivaled market power over smartphone tablet manufacturers,” says the suit. It also suggests that Android devices would be cheaper if manufacturers didn’t have to pay for better positioning in the market that users would have more search options if it weren’t for the embedded search integration. “[Consumers] do not know how to switch, nor will they go to the trouble of switching, the default search engine on their devices.” A spokesperson sent out a brief statement on the matter. “Anyone can use Android without anyone can use without Android. Since Android’s introduction, greater competition in smartphones has given consumers more choices at lower prices.” The lawsuit comes at an interesting time considering the fact that the next wave of low-end devices meant to help bring smartphones to emerging markets run Android. ed, not all of them were developed in conjunction with —Nokia’s X phone, for instance, is a completely independent venture. However, companies like HTC Samsung do offer a myriad of sub-$200 devices that come stard with ‘s app offerings. It’ll be interesting to see how this lawsuit pans out. Android is an open source mobile operating system, but in order for to stay relevant is has to be a part of the process in one way or another. The catch is that the inclusion of ‘s suite of apps search engine by default is in practice just as limiting to users as its competitors.
