![]() The staff at the Smash Shack wants you to know that they're just like the big guys, but better. Opening in February of 2022, as explained by the owners, The New Paltz community was in need of a quick burger place that wasn't quite sit down and super fancy, but at the same time was not drive-through fast food. “Does it mean Google phones might have to offer (Apple’s virtual assistant) Siri as an alternative to the Google Assistant? Or would Apple devices have to offer Google Assistant?”Ī decision like that would open a crack in the digital wall that Apple has built around the iPhone to give its own software and certain pet products such as Siri exclusive access to the device’s more than 1 billion users, setting the stage for another potential legal battle.Soon after, the news came that the Taco Shack location would soon become Smash Shack. ![]() “If one of the outcomes of the trial is that there needs to be more neutral choices, it wouldn’t just affect Google on Android phones, it could also affect Apple and the iPhone,” Schaub said. That would be ironic.”Īlthough the trial is focused on Google’s search engine, a government victory could have more sweeping consequences across the technology industry if Mehta decided all default settings are anti-competitive and outlaws all defaults in the settings. “Maybe their cost/benefit analysis is off and they will wind up more money and just as much dominance. “Google must think they getting a great benefit from those default agreements, but maybe they’re really not worth that much,” Olson said. “I don’t think they will be big, but we could see some price increases because Google has essentially been subsidizing the cost of devices like the iPhone.”Īnother offshoot of a ban on default search agreements is that Google still could have a dominant advantage in search if people continue to proactively choose it and the company would have billions of dollars more to spend in other areas that it once devoted to deals that it really didn’t need at all. “If Google is no longer paying big bucks to Apple and other companies, they might raise the prices for their devices,” said David Olson, an associate professor for the Boston College Law School who is following the antitrust trial. However, a blanket ban on default search agreements that have been highly profitable for Apple and other companies such as wireless provider Verizon could trigger unintended consequences, such as raising prices on other popular products. That stance has raised speculation that if Apple is blocked from using Google as the default search engine on the iPhone, it might flex its muscle as the world’s richest company to develop its own search technology. In his testimony during the trial, Apple executive Eddy Cue said the company has embraced Google as the preferred search engine on the iPhone and other products because it provides the best experience for its customers. If people still choose to use Google, that is at least a consumer choice, which would better than having people stick to a default because they are conditioned to that default.” “What the government can do is inject some neutralism into this and give consumers some actual choices. ![]() ![]() “The current environment is being shaped by an architecture that’s designed by the big companies that control the space,” Schaub said. “There’s defaults - the only thing that matter in terms of changing search behavior,” Nadella testified.įlorian Schaub, associate professor of information at the University of Michigan, believes the fairest outcome in the trial would an across-the-board ban on all default agreements between two companies. He then added that the only way to break the habit is by changing the default choice.Īs long as a ruling doesn’t exclude Google’s rivals from paying to be the automatic search engine on smartphones and web browsers, Microsoft could buy the default position for Bing - an opportunity Nadella indicated he would seize. “You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google,” Nadella said. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asserted Google has an almost hypnotic hold on users while testifying earlier this month during the trial.
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