2023 has been an eventful year in the smartphone industry, with a myriad of launches taking place. From budget entry-level smartphones to flamboyant flagships, a new smartphone has been launched for every user and need. But in the ocean of smartphones out there, choosing the perfect smartphone tailored to your needs can be a daunting task. But worry not, we've got your back. We have curated a list of the top 5 smartphones that we tried this year, and these devices shone brightly like the Sirius star on a dark night. From iPhone 15 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to Google Pixel 8 Pro, check out the top 5 smartphones that we tried this year.
Google to pay $700 million and make tiny app store changes to settle with 50 states
19.12.2023 - 07:21 / theverge.com / Sean Hollister
By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
On December 11th, a jury decided that Google has an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store, handing Epic Games a win. But Epic wasn’t the only one fighting an antitrust case. All 50 state attorneys general settled a similar lawsuit in September, and we’ve just now learned what Google agreed to give up as a result: $700 million and a handful of minor concessions in the way that Google runs its store in the United States.
The biggest change: Google will need to let developers steer consumers away from the Google Play Store for several years, if this settlement is approved.
You can read the full 68-page settlement for yourself at the bottom of this story, but here’s the TL;DR about what it includes:
Does that sound like a lot? If you add it all up, it does make for a slightly different Google app store landscape than we’ve experienced over the past decade and change. But not only does every one of these concessions have an expiration date, many of them are arguably not real concessions.
Google argued during the Epic v. Google trial that users were already perfectly able to install third-party apps on their devices through any number of means, and it claimed many of its agreements with developers, OEMs, and carriers did not require them to, for instance, exclusively put Google Play on a phone or its homescreen.
More importantly, several of the most significant sounding changes here are tied to Google’s User Choice Billing program — which is mostly a fake choice, the Epic v. Google trial proved.
We confirmed with Google spokesperson Dan Jackson this evening that User Choice Billing participants are given a discounted rate of just 4 percent off of Google’s fee when users choose their own payment system, and that it won’t change as a result of the settlement. Not only did Google internally find that developers would lose money when users choose the 4 percent rate, but Google also gives companies like Spotify a free ride while apparently charging everyone else.
Perhaps most importantly, Google is reserving the right not to let developers like Netflix link to their own websites to give their users a discounted rate. “Google is not required to allow developers to include links that take a User outside an app distributed through Google Play to make a purchase,” the settlement agreement reads. We are still waiting to find out whether Apple will allow links and/or buttons to alternative payment systems, based on the ruling in Epic v.
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