The battle for mobile app stores has begun in Europe with Google’s first decision on the Play Store and its apps: it will start charging the license to manufacturers . It will not be cheap: the brand that Google Play wants on their devices must pay up to 40 euros per mobile . So, having a high extra cost, would not it be better to install an alternative store?
Aptoide is postulated as a serious alternative to the Google Play Store . It’s open (maybe too much), allows its installation on any Android phone or tablet, is used by more than 250 million people in the world, has more than 6000 million downloads … And has already won a lawsuit against Google itself in the land where it is suffering the most: Europe.
Google Play Protect removed Aptoide without permission from the phones where it was installed
The first news we had of this case was in July, when Aptoide publicly denounced that Google used Play Protect to warn its users that the application was dangerous. I even uninstalled it from mobile without any warning : the user found that Aptoide had disappeared from his smartphone.
Paulo Trezentos , executive director of Aptoide , denounced Google before the courts of Lisbon, Portugal. The court has given the reason to the company and Google must stop their actions against the parallel store causing Google Play Protect to stop behaving aggressively with Aptoide. It is the first ruling at European level that fails in favor of the application for an application against Google’s monopoly within Android, which could set a precedent .
Google has a huge open front in Europe that will hinder its dominant position on Android. The hegemony of this operating system is almost total ( above 73% ), hence any abuse of power is going to look at itself with a magnifying glass. Google already accumulates several fines in its piggy bank, the last of 4340 million euros . The victory of Aptoide is also a hard blow.
