As the Epic Games v. Apple trial winds down, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the witness stand Friday to deliver a big fat nothingburger.
Trial watchers were hoping Cook would deliver dramatic and explosive testimony, but he mostly dodged, demurred or couldn’t remember.
Apple and Epic’s battle commenced in August 2020 when the game developer tried to dodge Apple’s 30% App Store cut for Fortnite in-app purchases. Apple immediately booted Fortnite from the App Store. Epic responded with a lawsuit taking aim at Apple for allegedly monopolistic behavior.
This is reportedly the first time Cook has testified at any trial, showing the seriousness of the dispute.
Witness for the defense
Taking the witness stand, Cook right off the cuff said he isn’t much involved in the running of the App Store, but keeps an eye on it in a “limited review capacity.”
After some friendly softballs from Apple’s lawyers, discussion turned to some of the key issues of the trial, namely the policies and profits in the App Store.
Sweeney is sitting at Epic's counsel table looking down at his pen. His lawyer Gary Bornstein sporadically whispers in his ear. Cook seems relaxed, legs crossed. Just turned to someone sitting next took him, said something and then laughed.
— Dorothy Atkins (@doratki) May 21, 2021
Questioned by Epic’s lawyers, Cook said he couldn’t estimate how much of Apple’s R&D budget went toward the App Store, because “we don’t allocate like that.” He claimed, somewhat dubiously, that Apple doesn’t break out R&D budgets for individual projects.
Asked about the App Store’s profits, Cook again claimed Apple does not evaluate the App Store’s income as a standalone business.
Told that the profits of the store were estimated at about 80%, Cook said the number was inaccurate. But when asked to give specifics, he said only that the iOS numbers “would be a lot larger” than macOS App Store numbers.
Wrapping up
Later, Epic’s lawyers asked Cook about Apple’s deal with Google as the default search engine on iOS. Again, Cook said he didn’t remember the specific numbers.
Cook’s hour-plus testimony mostly went like that. He was polite and deferential, but his answers shed almost no light on the case or Apple’s business.
The trial will continue next week with a closed court session, but we’ll likely not hear a peep about it because it concerns confidential business information. The judge said a ruling isn’t likely to come quickly because she’s busy with other cases.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
