By John Glenday

A Harvard professor has accused Google of anti-competitive practices owing to its restrictive contracts with smartphone manufacturers over the use of its Android operating system.

Whilst acknowledging that the software is ‘open’ and ‘fosters competition’ Prof Ben Edelman warned that its contracts ‘harm consumers’ by insisting that they pre-install all Google’s applications; including Google Search, Gmail and Maps as a single package– even if they wish to install just one of these apps.

Edelman based his conclusions on a contract given to HTC which included the proviso that Google is made the ‘default search provider for all web search access points’.

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Source: The Drum