Thursday, 18 January 2018
Contact: Michela Palladino – michela@developersalliance.org
BRUSSELS — Today the Developers Alliance, joined by dozens of mobile application developers, sent a letter to the European Commission cautioning against actions that could fragment the mobile ecosystem, reduce competition by raising costs for developers and consumers, and undermine Europe’s success in the global digital economy.
The European Commission has been investigating Google’s Android mobile operating system for the past years and could potentially require Google to modify its business practices in ways that would compromise Android’s free, open source model. Such changes, warned the letter, “could adversely impact European businesses and the EU’s global leadership in app economy.” A 2016 report by the Progressive Policy Institute showed that Europe has more than 1.6 million Android developers, nearly the same number as the United States[1]. In addition, Android apps created by European developers are downloaded more than 2.5 billion times per month by users around the world, a significant percentage of the global total.
At stake for developers is a growing global ecosystem, that the app market analyst App Annie believes will surpass $110 billion in 2018, a 30 percent increase from last year[2]. Currently, developers can build applications on Android that are seamlessly integrated into 24,000 unique Android devices made by 1,300 brands. Such diversity allows application developers to reach 2 billion users in 190 countries.
But developers expressed concern that changes to Android’s business model “could undermine the consistency of various Android devices, which would be lethal to our businesses,” as “it does not make business sense to develop different versions of our applications for each of the thousands of Android devices.”
Boris Kolev, Vice-President for Business Development at Digimark, a Bulgarian fast-growing mobile app studio, stated: “Relying on an open and secure Android platform is essential for our business. We fear that the European Commission’s investigation will have as a result a more fragmented Android, and that will make developing more expensive for clients and harder for us.”
Developers believe that the current mobile ecosystem is healthy and competitive, and that free, open-source platforms like Android allow them to innovate and create exciting new products and services.
“Android’s contribution to the open source community has been responsible for the creativity and innovation in the European mobile economy, giving developers the tools and platform to create, and maintain new businesses disrupting traditional market sectors.“, said Ash Davies, Senior Android Developer for ImmobilienScout24, Germany’s leading digital real estate marketplace.
“Beard Brothers dot global is opposed to measures that risk fragmenting an open system, like Android. We call on the EU to ensure the mobile space is free and open. Europe’s digital future and the profitability of many EU businesses, small and large, are at stake. This includes our clients and collaborators in France.“, added Adam LG Ring, Co-founder at Beard Brothers dot global, a startup-oriented global digital agency.
The European Commission is expected to issue a finding from this investigation later this year.
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About the Developers Alliance
The Developers Alliance is the world’s leading advocate for software developers and the companies invested in their success. Alliance members include industry leaders in consumer, enterprise, industrial, and emerging software development, and a global network of more than 70,000 developers.
