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Nov. 22 (NBD) – Google will charge Android manufacturers for including Google apps on their devices that will be sold in Europe and be activated on or after February 1st, 2019.

The move came as the tech giant strives to counter European Commission's move to deny Google the market monopoly in the mobile software field.

In July this year, the U.S. firm was fined 5 billion U.S. dollars by European Commission for essentially forcing its Android partners to pre-install Google Search and Google Chrome in every gadget released in the market.

Then it decided to adopt new business model that hardware developers are asked to pay the patent fee of up to 40 U.S. dollars per device. 

The fee can be as low as 2.5 U.S. dollars or rise depending on the country and device size. The standard fee for major phone manufacturers is set at around 20 U.S. dollars.

This is expected to become Google's new source of income since the company is not allowed to make profits from the installations. Over 80 percent smartphones in the global market are using the Android operating system and last year, 94 billion apps were downloaded from Google Play Store. 

The new charge indicates a trend that more licensing fees could be added to smartphone producers. 

In Chinese market, phone manufacturers that don't have self-developed operating system may face surging cost. But some believe that the rule to limit the installation of Google apps on devices will bring opportunities for collaborations between mobile phone manufacturers and software developers which offer alternative products. 

The domestic auto market is another field that could be influenced by the licensing fee. 

According to report from McKinsey&Company, the software value accounts for about 10 percent of the total car value now and the figure will rise to 30 percent by 2030. 

As car screens have been the necessary part for mid- and high-end models in Chinese market, the auto software is also the core component for vehicles. 

It is noteworthy that China's local auto brands show most enthusiasm to develop operating system. However, the majority of those brands, such as Geely, Xiaopeng Motors, and NIO, as well as enterprises along their supply chains choose to use open-source Android to design the custom system, due to Android's low cost, simplicity of development and accessibility.

Ge Weimin, researcher at Institute of Economics of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, held that while Google has launched Android Auto, a mobile app that can be applied on car displays, the company could require more automakers to install the system on their models. 

Google's charge will cause the sudden increase of cost for not only using Android system, but also for developing and testing the custom auto system, Ge added.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn