Tim Cook He spent an awkward three hours in California courthouse on Friday, or so it sounded with his voice muffled available, defending the iOS app store as an “economic miracle,” but reiterating the company’s streak that often nobody he mocked. an Apple They know how profitable it is, not only do they not post numbers, they don’t know it.
It is not a separate feature in itself. It is one of the characteristics of our devices. Cook said in his testimony near the end of the three-week trial about the antitrust charges he filed. Epic gamesBehind the company It is an electronic game. It is a court trial, which means that it will be decided by US District Judge Yvonne González Rogers.
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Epic Games has described Apple as a monopoly when the antitrust suit opens in federal court in California.
Epic, with the support of a few other developers, is protesting Apple charging massive commissions of up to 30% on all App Store revenue. Apple also makes it difficult for developers to direct customers outside of the store to collect payments elsewhere, minus fees. Cook said, why not do it, that easing the step “would be similar to Apple going to Best Buy and announcing that you can cross the street to the Apple Store and buy an iPhone.”
Epic consultant Gary Bornstein joked, “I have an iPhone sir, I hope it still works today after the scan.”
Epic Games challenged Apple by updating the Fortnite iPhone app so that players could pay directly to Epic, bypassing Apple’s payment and commission system. Apple responded with the boot. It is an electronic game From the app store. Epic launched a “FreeFortnite” ad campaign and filed a lawsuit.
“The developers were caught in a trap made by Apple. They accepted Apple’s assurances that it would not make a profit from the App Store, and once they committed to working in the ecosystem, they found termination provisions that weren’t negotiable… the infrastructure. ”Take it or leave it, said Epic attorney Catherine Forrest came back When the trial began May 3rd.
The emails seen during the experiment showed that Apple executives had indeed discussed the profitability of the App Store, but Cook said the numbers were not “fully loaded” and are not informal and are not used to make business decisions. I admit that the app store was profitable. When asked how he knew, he said, “We have a feeling.”
Wall Street analysts estimated that the App Store could represent as much as 30% of Apple’s services division, which generated $ 16.9 billion in revenue for the March quarter. The lawsuit is important because ruling against Apple on fees could slow its sales growth.
Cook said that the App Store offers a massive audience for developers and is simple, secure, and consumer-friendly. “We always put the user at the center of everything,” he insisted.
“I think it was an economic miracle,” he said, noting that there are 1.8 million apps on the service and nearly two million people working in the “iOS jobs economy.” IOS has a 30% share of the US market and 15% of the global market, and Android has the dominant share.
Spotify and Facebook, a group called the Coalition for App Fairness, have opposed the fees, which Apple cut to 15% for small businesses last year. However, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel today defended the Cupertino, California giant.
“We really feel that Snapchat would not exist without the iPhone and without the incredible platform that Apple has created,” Spiegel said on CNBC. TechCheck part. “In that sense, I’m not sure that we have the option to pay a 30% fee and of course we are happy to do so because of all the great technology that they provide us in terms of software, but also in terms of the developments of your device “.
Cook was full of questions about app store regulation, competitor data, privacy, and China. When asked if he is aware of game streaming services, he said: “To some extent, I am not a gamer.”
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