Since Epic breaking the Apple App Store by bypassing the in-app billing scheme of the firm and avoiding a 30 percent commission to the battle royale game, Fortnite, Epic Games and Apple have been engaged in a legal war for quite some time now. Apple quickly pulled the game from the App Store, backed by a developer legal action alleging that the tech giant had broken antitrust legislation and that it would allow the iOS network to run app stores from other third parties. If this situation is swinging on the side of Epic, Apple must encourage the customer to access applications and use fewer charging third-party payment providers.
Recently, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is at the Epic Games vs Apple event on Friday and it looks like Epic Games will win an amazing last-minute victory. This victory will then be broadly based on how iOS developers get money.
For the most part, Apple seems to be in the lead saying it has to protect the privacy of its customers and defend them against malware. It also confirmed that its practices are similar to other digital stores, like Sony and Microsoft, which are also similar to some of Epic’s largest financial partners.
Now things turned out after Cook was called to the stand and US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers confronted him with questions about the limited App Store rules of his business. The sound of the questions from Rogers has led people to believe that a split rule could be made at the end where the key requests from Epic must be refused, while still telling Apple to curtail those activities and to allow developers to externally connect to cheaper shopping options.
During the session, Rogers pushed Cook to agree that developers generate the most income and support other applications on the store that don’t pay commissions. She said Apple earnings are “disproportionate” to game makers. “I get this notion that Apple brings the customer somehow to the dance, but the developers retain the game’s customers after the first encounter. It seems to be the Apple just takes advantage of that.”
“Free applications add much to the table, Cook disagrees with Rogers.” Just the ones who actually make a big profit pay 30% commissions.” Rogers also urged Cheif Tim Sweeney of Epic to remember at the beginning of the trial with difficult concerns about how the verdict, in this case, will spill out into the realm of tech. If it permits developers to connect to cheaper external alternatives, it will be the president of the global regulators’ increased anti-trust surveillance of the Apple App Store.
Though developers will be able to use external outlets for payment, third-party app stores for iOS cannot yet be created. Apple has taken a hard position on encryption, so it does not allow digital third-party shops or unveiled applications on its mobile network. During Craig Federighi, Chief Software Officer for Apple, earlier this week, he said these policies help protect malware users and its key rival, and Android, which does not have those policies, has a far bigger malware issue.
