Google charges as much as $40 per Android phone for its app suite under EU ruling

Ben Schoon | Oct 19 2018 - 8:02 am PT

Earlier this week, it was revealed that, thanks to anti-trust fines and a ruling in the European Union, Google would be making some major changes to how Android worked in the EU. Today, some details are being revealed on that, including how much the company will charge for its app suite under the Android EU deal.

Google confirmed just a few days ago that under this new Android EU deal, the company would be splitting its own apps out from the operating system, instead licensing them out to manufacturers to use however they like with Android. This opens the door to whatever software changes the company wants to make, all while still offering up the Play Store and other Google services.

According to documents obtained by The Verge, Google’s fees for licensing out those apps are going to be fairly hefty. The new fees do vary by country and type, but cost as much as $40 per device to use “Google Mobile Services.” Google previously mentioned it will also be offering a deal which subsidizes some or all of that cost if Google Chrome and Google search are default services on the device.

These fees would apparently change based on the device’s pixel density, a good indicator of the price range it targets. Three country tiers are also reportedly in place, with the highest fees in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands.

In those countries, a device with 500ppi pixel density would have to pay $40 for Google’s apps, where a 400-500ppi device would have to pay $20. Finally, devices under 400ppi would only have to pay $10. In other countries, these fees are as low as $2.50. Tablets would also see a totally different pricing scheme capping out at $20 per device.

Further, devices that don’t bundle Chrome and Google search on its devices would miss out on search revenue sharing. The Verge explains:

According to the new agreement, Google would not pay search revenue sharing for devices that do not pre-install Chrome and place it in the phone’s home screen dock. “If the Company elects not to place the Google Chrome browser on the Application Dock for any Qualified Device(s) supplied into the EEA [European Economic Area],” the agreement reads, “Company will not be entitled to any portion of revenue generated from Google Chrome for such Qualified Device(s).”