As we reported early Wednesday morning, the European Union has officially filed charges against Google alleging that the company has employed anti-competitive tactics in the region. Following an investigation that lasted for four years, the European Commission has filed antitrust charges and sent Google a statement of objections, which explains exactly how Google is allegedly breaking the law.
Google now has 10 days to respond, but it looks like it already has most of the high-level points for its response ready — and in an internal memo that outlines the company’s objections to the charges, there are a few interesting tidbits to be enjoyed.
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Google’s mobile operating system Android is something of a phenomenon. The platform rocketed to the top of the mobile market thanks in large part to Google’s open source model. Any vendor can use Android to power its devices for free, and companies can make all sorts of customizations to suit their needs.
One of the results is a wide range of different Android devices, giving consumers all sorts of choices when shopping for any category of Android devices, from phones and tablets to smartwatches and TVs. But do you have any idea how many different Android devices are available for sale today? What would your guess be — 500? 1,000? 5,000?
Try 18,000.
That figure is absolutely staggering, and it will only grow as time marches on. Google’s products are almost always aimed at the future, and Google clearly knocked it out of the park when it acquired Android in 2005.
The full internal memo can be read on Re/code, which is linked below in our source section.
