Google has denied an earlier report accusing the company of charging manufacturers a hefty licensing fee to use its Google Mobile Services on Android.
Android, Google's mobile operating system is the world's biggest open source platform for smartphones. An earlier report from The Guardian claimed that Google charged its OEMs a licensing fee to use its Google Mobile Services on Android. But the web giant denied such a practice and confirmed to the folks at 9to5Google that Guardian's story was inaccurate.
Google's vast Android platform is divided into two main parts: Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that allows manufacturers to freely use the platform and Google Mobile Service that requires OEMs to agree to various guidelines to use Google Play Services and Google branded apps like Maps and Gmail. The report from Guardian on Thursday claimed that Google was charging OEMs a per-device fee of 75 cents or $75,000 for every 100,000 devices to access Google Mobile Services.
Google confirmed to 9to5Google that Google Mobile Services are given to OEMs without any licensing fees. The tech blog assumes that the fee mentioned by The Guardian is in reference to another settlement with Google, but not for Google Mobile Services.
Manufacturers are free to use the closed Google Mobile Services, provided they agree to certain requirements. Google was under the spotlight last year for moving some of its popular APIs and apps including Gallery, SMS and most recently Calendar from AOSP to Google Mobile Services. By doing so, manufacturers are left with no option but to agree to Google's conditions for using Google Mobile Services. For instance, if manufacturers want to use Google Play or Maps API in their devices, they must take all other apps and services tied to Google Mobile Services as well as agree to its regulated terms.