Kent Walker, writing on the Google European bog, said that Android shows that his company is motivated by altruistic motives. He said: “In 2007, we launched Android, a free and open-source operating system. Smartphones back then were an expensive rarity. We wanted to change that — to stimulate innovation and increase choice for consumers — and it worked.”

Because of this, people can buy smartphones for as little as 45 Euro with a potential market for app developers of a billion people worldwide.

Google has filed a response to the EU antitrust regulator today in which it says the Commission “underestimates the importance of developers and the dangers of fragmentation”.

The ruling, Walker continued, risks making fragmentation worse and harming competition.

He said: “But open-source platforms are fragile. They survive and grow by balancing the needs of all participants, including users and developers. The Commission’s approach would upset this balance, and send an unintended signal favouring closed over open platforms. It would mean less innovation, less choice, less competition, and higher prices. That wouldn’t be just a bad outcome for us. It would be a bad outcome for developers, for phone makers and carriers, and, most critically, for consumers.”

Google is all heart. You can read more of what he has to say, here.