Android, iOS And Market Power – What Does Mobile Platform Competition Really Look Like?

By Jakob Kucharczyk 

The European Commission’s competition investigation into Google’s Android mobile operating system (“OS”) has raised a lot of attention and commentary. So far most comments focused on the “abuse” part of that investigation. While the issue of “abuse” is arguably the more interesting part in most Article 102 cases, the finding of a dominant position is worth a broader discussion in the Android investigation. That is because it reveals a lot on how the Commission views the competitive dynamics in the mobile OS space. This article discusses this issue and explains how large market share is not a reliable proxy for market power.

Full Content: CPI