Microsoft executive accuses Google of ‘misconduct’ over Windows Phone development block

Microsoft vice president Dave Heiner has published a blog post accusing Google of ‘misconduct’ for its refusal to develop apps for Windows Phone.

The post follows statements from Google’s product management director Clay Bavor, who said that the company ‘has no plans’ to develop its popular app suite for Windows Phone.

‘We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8,’ he said.

Heiner lambasted Google in his post, saying: ‘We continue to be dogged by an issue we had hoped would be resolved by now: Google continues to prevent Microsoft from offering consumers a fully featured YouTube app for the Windows Phone.’

‘We formally raised this concern almost two years ago,’ he said, adding that Microsoft’s view is that Google is ‘impeding competition in the markeplace.’

‘Google continues to block Microsoft from offering its customers proper access to YouTube,’ wrote Heiner, ‘This is an important issue because consumers value YouTube access on their phone.'

‘YouTube apps on the Android and Apple platforms were two of the most downloaded mobile applications in 2012, according to recent news reports,’ he said, ‘yet Google still refuses to allow Windows Phone users to have the same access to YouTube that Android and Apple customers enjoy.’

‘Microsoft has continued to engage with YouTube personnel over the past two years to remedy this problem for consumers. As you might expect, it appears that YouTube itself would like all customers – on Windows Phone as on any other device – to have a great YouTube experience.'

But just last month we learned from YouTube that senior executives at Google told them not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones,’ Heiner’s scathing attack claimed.

It’s not just Youtube, of course, but Google’s entire set of app-based services which Windows Phone users can’t get gold of. This includes a Gmail client, Google Drive, Talk (Chat), Reader (RSS), Maps, Google +, Analytics and many more besides.

If Google didn't develop these apps for Apple's rival iOS platform as well then perhaps its aversion to Windows Phone would make more sense, but as things stand it's oddly selective considering it would probably take minimal investment on Google's part.

‘Google often says that the antitrust offenses with which it has been charged cause no harm to consumers’, Heiner continues.

‘Google is wrong about that. In this instance, for example, Google’s refusal deprives consumers who use competing platforms of a comparable experience in accessing content that is generally available on the Web, almost all of which is created by users rather than by Google itself.’

‘And it’s inconsistent, to say the least, with Google’s public insistence that other competing services, such as Facebook, should offer Google complete access to their content so they can index and include it on their search site.’