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Hi-Tech Firms Join Forces Against Google

A group of companies led by Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) has asked European officials to investigate Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) over alleged unfair practices in the mobile smartphone market.

"FairSearch" - which consists of 17 hi-tech firms including Microsoft, Nokia (Stockholm: NOKI-SEK.ST - news) , Expedia (NasdaqGS: EXPE - news) , TripAdvisor (NasdaqGS: TRIP - news) and Oracle (NasdaqGS: ORCL - news) - has claimed that the internet giant acted unfairly with its Android operating system.

"We are asking the commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market," Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel for FairSearch, said in a statement.

"Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google's Android operating system."

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FairSearch said it had filed a complaint with the commission, charging that the internet giant wanted Android operators to use its leading applications such as Maps or YouTube.

It said Google's Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, accounting for 70% at the end of 2012, while it had 96% of mobile phone search advertising.

A spokesman for Google told Sky News: "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission."

Google has been under investigation by the commission for practices related to its dominance of online search and advertising markets since 2010.

Last week, six European countries including France and Britain, launched joint action against Google to try to get it to scale back new monitoring powers that watchdogs believe violate EU privacy protection rules.

The European Commission is not obliged to take any action other than reply to the complaint.

Android operating systems have the largest share of the smartphone market, followed by those made by Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) . Blackberry, Microsoft and others are far behind.

The European move comes as Taiwain's HTC saw its shares rise 1.5% even though the smartphone maker posted a record-low quarterly profit.

HTC's first-quarter net profit slumped 98% from a year earlier after sales suffered from the delayed launch of the company's new flagship smartphone.

The phonemaker saw its net profit fall to 85m New Taiwan dollars (£1.85m) for the quarter ending March 31, down from NT$4.47bn (£97m) a year earlier.

:: During 2010 HTC was the biggest seller of smartphones in the US operating on the Android system.

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