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Tim Cook testified on Friday that the iPhone is a product in a “highly competitive” market because he tried to eliminate allegations that the company was involved in an illegal operation, which could impair one billion iPhones. Users and thousands of iPhone users have a profound impact. Developer.
Apple’s CEO expressed his position in a high-profile lawsuit filed by Epic Games (manufacturer Epic Games). Fort night. Epic argued that Apple abused its position by forcing developers to distribute apps through its App Store, and the company charged a 15-30% commission.
Apple was fired Fort night Last year, Epic tried to buy the product from the App Store. At that time, Epic tried to avoid fees by providing game players with zero commissions for in-app purchases.
Apple faces high profits “billions of dollars” and legal precedents that constitute a monopoly in the digital age. debate Gene Munster of Loup Ventures.
Cook listed a series of rival mobile phone manufacturers to illustrate the fiercely competitive market, and said that iPhone customers value the well-planned experience of owning an app store. He said: “For us, the customer is everything.” “We are working hard to provide customers with integrated solutions for hardware, software and services.”
Apple’s software, hardware, and service ecosystem is collapsing Strengthen review Conducted by regulators in Washington and Brussels, Epic has also been protesting against the iPhone maker. However, after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said at the end of last year that the company was arguing about the frontiers of antitrust theory, Epic was clearly facing a tough court lawsuit.
$72 billion
Amount of spending on the Apple App Store in 2020
Epic draws on the words of economists, app developers’ companions, and Apple executives to prove that Apple deliberately induced developers to have a set of expectations-this is an app store that is not seeking profit, just like Stie What Steve Jobs said in 2008. -Before introducing a series of mechanisms to lock consumers in their ecosystem and make it difficult to switch.
Apple said that Jobs’s statement was not a promise, but a prediction. To be sure, this is wrong, but wrong, because in Cook’s words, the App Store is indeed an “economic miracle.”
Jobs once said that it may “become a billion-dollar market at some point,” and according to “Sensor Tower” (Sensor Tower) data, by 2020, App Store spending will reach 72 billion US dollars.
On Friday, Epic’s lawyers were uneasy about Cook’s attitude, whether Cook has a profit margin of close to 80%-Smith’s (Epic) professional witness” from Apple CEO Tim Ku This figure is described in Tim Cook’s archive.” Epic believes that this number clearly reflects the excessively high profit margins and its constraints on developers.
Cook did not dispute the authenticity of the report, but called it a “one-off” and could not accurately reflect all Apple’s investment in the App Store. He said that Apple will not bring profit or loss to the App Store.
Serious cases sometimes have weird turns, including the debate about whether animated bananas exist. Fort night As Apple’s lawyers said, they are “naked” without a tuxedo.
In fact, the seemingly insignificant comment is actually a core argument Apple uses for its defense: The exclusive and well-planned App Store is good for iPhone users because it protects them from what might happen if the company is forced to give up. Violation of obscene content. Control and allow other app stores on its hardware.
Epic calls this statement “safe theater”, which is an excuse to maintain high fees and strict control. Epic’s lawyer Katherine Forrest took a few minutes to prove that iPhone users are allowed to search for words such as “pornography” and “BDSM” on apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Reddit.In the App Store itself, Apple sells advertisements for search terms including “escort” and provides advertisements such as Love Positions 3D, Forrest said.
Regardless of the outcome, the trial gave a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the world’s largest company, and revealed materials that Apple critics around the world might use to claim its anti-competitive behavior.
For example, emails discovered during the discovery process indicated that Apple executives objected to allowing the company’s iMessage app to be used on competitors’ Android phones as it would be “deleted” [an] The iPhone family provides children with barriers to Android phones.”
In another transaction, an Apple engineer said that if Apple can sell ads in the App Store like Google does in the Play Store, it would be “great”, but he admitted that it is not the same as Cook “tell the world we have created.” “Is “contradictory.” High-quality products cannot be profited by users.” Despite this, Apple launched this service in 2017. expanded last month.
Apple complained about “anecdotal trials.” Its lawyers believe that Epic has failed to prove that Apple’s App Store rules are unusual, that its 30% charge is too high, or that its interest in maintaining user safety is an excuse.
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