Well it looks like Google may find themselves in court again over some interesting accusations of being uncompetitive and using strong arm tactics to push their product. Skyhook wireless is a company involved in location based technology which I assume could be used for advertising, social networking or any number of the ways location is used nowadays and these are the reasons why Skyhook has their nickers in a knot.
According to Skyhook it seems that Google has been been forcing the manufacturers to use their own location technology and to sever their contracts with Skyhook or else they will deny access to future iterations of Android applications such as Google Maps. This is very contrary to what Google promote with their policy of “Don’t be evil” and the open development environment they are creating with the Android platform.
Skyhook is looking for more then just compensation here, they are also looking to possibly get an injunction on Google to prevent further practices such as mentioned above. These are very strong moves against Google which I am sure will be taken very seriously.
Location based advertising is a massive industry now and obviously Google being a huge advertising company are wanting to ensure that they get location locked down so to speak. It is not uncommon for a software developer to take on a lot so they can control all the core elements of their system. This is not to excuse Google from any shady business practices.
For all we know Google may just have a model that works extremely well for them and Skyhook’s just might not fit into the whole Android ecosystem, I guess we will have to wait to find out a result.
Google has not yet been served a lawsuit so obviously the case has not been fully assembled, we will wait to hear some commentary from Google.