For his hearing today, Tim Cook is said to have prepared a small prior statement in which he denies any anti-competitive behavior on the part of Apple. According to Bloomberg (who would have had access to this speech), the CEO maintains his line of conduct, and plans to position the firm as « an American company », who respect the rules and that « does not exercise a dominant position in any market ». The message is clear, but could he really say something else?
Remember that the CEO should be bitterly questioned by the Congress, on the commercial practices of Cupertino, Especially l’App Store. Over the past few weeks, a growing number of developers have openly criticized the 15% / 30% levy applied to in-app purchases and subscriptions, the control of the firm on apps or rather obscure T & Cs. Last month, David Cicillin, chairman of the House Antitrust subcommittee, considered this dignified behavior a « robbery », announcing not very peaceful debates.
In the main lines of his speech, Tim Cook set to revisit the early days of the App Store. Having started with 500 applications, it now hosts more than 1.7 million – including only 60 Apple software. He should also insist on guardian role (more like a quality controller and compliance with certain standards) and facilitator, the goal being tohost as many apps as possible and not their « close the door ».
He should add that the structure and prices of the App Store are a more attractive alternative to what existed before., when « the only distribution method was to buy its software in a box ». Furthermore, he would claim that the vast majority of apps on the App Store provide 100% of their revenue to developers.
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Just like Phil Schiller yesterday, he should insist on the (in his day) store revolution, which made it possible to free oneself from other constraints, such as physical support, packaging, the cost of physical distribution (production, in-store sales, rental, physical advertising), inventory management, etc. These last significantly impacted developers’ income and limited their work. .
Finally, he should defend the question of the price, the appropriateness of the levy and its amount.. « Apple’s commissions are comparable or lower than the commissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they’re well below the 50-70% software developers paid to distribute their work before the App Store launched. ». Upstream, several Apple executives spoke on the subject. The latest, Phil Schiller, VP of global marketing, yesterday defended the practices of the App Store in a well-honed speech.
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