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Comment by murz | Hacker News Reader

> they're a giant company who is using their search monopoly to undercut smaller competitors in the smart phone market.

How exactly is Google using their search monopoly to undercut smaller (or larger for that matter) competitors in the smart phone market?

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It's similar to MSFT vs. Borland, MSFT could undercut the compilers because they sold the OS. Compilers and developer tools are a complement to their core business. Smartphones are a complement to Google's search/adsense business.

To Google making sure that people have cheap smartphones increases their search revenue. It also ensures there will be a smart phone platform with Google defaults. On an Apple or RIM device MSFT might have enough dough or other leverage to change a search default. And on WinPhone7 you can be pretty sure the search default will be Bing.

It's not the same thing. MSFT would impede innovation with sneaky tactics (e.g. hide or change apis) in order to stay in the lead. I have yet to see Google do something like that. Google is winning by innovating.

It's free and open source, anyone can take the source code, modify it and sell it under their own name. In fact I've read that Baidu was doing exactly that. Some manufacturers have also changed the default search engine in Android to Bing.

By giving away free OS and services they are killing the paid OS model and using the search monopoly to subsidize for it. But as I said below everybody does that in one way or another. Nothing specific about Google. It's just that some ways are more easily discernible than others.

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