The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new investigation into the mobile ecosystem, taking aim at the potential market dominance of Apple and Google.

In two separate investigations, the CMA will assess – in parallel – Apple’s and Google’s position in their respective ‘mobile ecosystem’ which include the operating systems, app stores, and browsers that operate on mobile devices.

The investigations intend to explore the impact on people who use mobile devices and the thousands of businesses developing services or content such as apps for these devices.

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, play a fundamental role in the lives of people in the UK. Almost all (94%) of 16+ year olds in the UK, around 56 million UK consumers – currently have access to a smartphone and the average UK users spends around 3 hours a day using a mobile device.

Besides the grip on consumers, the mobile market is also made up of almost 15,000 businesses which are involved in development of apps used on mobile devices in the UK, and the total UK revenue for app development is estimated to be around £28 billion.

The CMA says that it is important for these markets to work well for all businesses to create maximum opportunities for growth, investment, and innovation across the UK economy.

As virtually all mobile devices sold in the UK are pre-installed with either IOS (Apple) or Android (Google), and Apple’s and Google’s own app stores and browsers have either exclusive or leading positions on their platforms compared to alternative products and services.

This would give Apple and Google the ability to exert considerable influence over much of the content, services, and technological development provided on a mobile device.

The CMA will assess if Apple and Google have strategic market status (SMS) in the mobile ecosystem, and specifically will investigate the extent of competition between and within these ecosystems.

The competition authority will also look into the possible leveraging of Apple’s and Google’s market power into other activities, such as favouring their own apps on their devices.

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The CMA will also look at if Apple or Google are exploiting their market position by putting unfair conditions on the use of their systems and devices in the mobile ecosystem.

“The operating systems, apps and browsers installed on our phones and tablet devices act as our gateway into the digital world – whether that is communicating with our friends and loved ones, buying from businesses or accessing creative content,” Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said.

“More competitive mobile ecosystems could foster new innovations and new opportunities across a range of services that millions of people use, be they app stores, browsers or operating systems. Better competition could also boost growth here in the UK, with businesses able to offer new and innovative types of products and services on Apple’s and Google’s platforms.”