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Tim Cook said Friday that the iPhone was a product in a “highly competitive” market, in a lawsuit that could have consequences for 1 billion iPhone users and thousands of people who were accused of exploiting the company’s illegal monopoly. most developers.
Apple’s chief executive has taken on the high-stakes case created by Epic Games Fortnite. Epic says Apple is abusing its position by forcing developers to distribute apps in the App Store, where it takes a 15-30 percent commission.
He expelled Apple Fortnite From the App Store last year Epic tried to fix fees by giving game players zero commission mode to make in-app purchases.
Apple had “billions of dollars” of high-margin revenue at stake and there was a legal precedent for what is a monopoly in the digital age. he argued Gene Munster of Wolf Ventures.
Cook pulled out a list of competing phone manufacturers to represent the competitive market, and said they value the experience that iPhone customers have with having a single app store. “The customer is everything to us,” he said. “We are trying to provide the customer with an integrated solution for hardware, software and services.”
Apple’s software, hardware, and service ecosystem is piling up increased study Regulators in Washington and Brussels have also taken action against the iPhone maker Epic. But Epic has apparently had an uphill battle in court after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said at the end of last year that the company was discussing the antithesis of antitrust theory.
$ 72 billion
The amount spent on Apple’s App Store in 2020
Epic has attracted the words of economists, app developers and Apple executives that Apple deliberately attracts developers with a set of expectations – an App Store that didn’t want to make a profit, as Steve Jobs said in 2008. – before introducing some mechanisms to make it difficult for consumers to block and change their ecosystem.
Apple said Jobs’ statement wasn’t as much of a commitment as the announcement – a mistake, for sure, but wrong because the App Store, in Cook’s words, was an “economic miracle.”
Jobs said it could become a “$ 1 billion market someday,” but, according to the Sensor Tower, spending on the App Store reached $ 72 billion by 2020.
On Friday, Epic’s attorneys asked Cook to find out if the App Store has a margin of about 80 percent – Epic’s expert witness presented “Tim Cook from Apple CEO files.” Epic says this figure is a clear reflection of the excess margins, reflecting a choke on developers.
Cook did not discuss the authenticity of the report, but said it was “timely” that it did not accurately reflect all of Apple’s investments in the App Store. According to him, Apple does not break the profits and losses for the App Store.
Serious cases have sometimes taken strange turns, including arguing whether bananas are animated Fortnite they are “naked” without tuxedos, Apple’s attorney said.
What seems like a trivial comment, in fact, came down to a key argument Apple has used in its defense: that the exclusive and well-kept App Store is good for iPhone users because it protects them from obscene content that might appear if the company gives up. control and allow alternative application stores on their hardware.
Epic called this argument a “security theater,” an excuse to maintain high rates and strict control. Epic advisor Katherine Forrest needed a few minutes to get iPhone users to search for terms like “porn” and “BDSM” on TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit apps. In the App Store itself, Apple sells ads for “escort” internal search terms and charges you for in-app purchases, such as in-app Love Positions 3D, Forrest said.
Whatever the outcome, the trial has provided a rare insight into the inner workings of the world’s largest company, and Apple’s critics around the world have exposed materials that can be used around the world to claim that it has acted against competitiveness.
Emails revealed during the discovery process, for example, were opposed by Apple executives for allowing the company’s iMessage app to be used on opposing Android phones as well, which would “remove it.” [an] an obstacle for iPhone families to give their children Android phones ”.
In another exchange, an Apple engineer said it would be “horrible” for Apple to sell ads in the App Store, as Google does for the Play Store, but acknowledged that it would be “conflicting” for Cook to “tell the world what we do.” excellent without making money for users ”. However, Apple launched the service in 2017 and spread last month.
Apple has denounced the “trial by anecdotes.” According to its lawyers, Epic has not shown that Apple’s App Store rules are unusual, that the 30 percent fee is excessive, or that it is an excuse for its interest in safeguarding user safety.
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