According to this leader, he never intended to experiment with opening 3rd-party app stores for its devices, because that would push users closer to the risk of malware exposure. Tim Cook appeared in court on May 21. Photo: Yahoo Finance. The view of Apple CEO received approval from Professor Justin Cappos, working at Tandon School of Engineering , belonging to New York University . “Clearly it is not possible for users to arbitrarily install software from their own application store,” Professor Justin Cappos stated on the website. Yahoo Finance . “Even if it’s a familiar app, there’s still the potential for increased malware and phishing on the iPhone.” Of course, Apple’s blocking of 3rd party app stores on iPhones is not simply about protecting consumers. The company also collects a 30% fee on transactions made through the App Store. In other words, while Apple is right when it comes to consumer protection, the dominance of the App Store still gets it in trouble with antitrust regulation. Tim Cook’s stance In an antitrust lawsuit being considered by the court, Epic claims Apple abused the position of the App Store, forcing developers to use a payment system it managed and paying a 30% fee. From summer 2020, Epic kicks things off with a Fortnite update, adding the option to pay for in-game currency through its own channel at a cheaper price than the App Store. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the app store and locking down Epic’s developer account. The game company quickly filed a lawsuit against Apple for monopoly behavior, demanding a reduction in transaction fees through the App Store or allowing 3rd party app stores to operate on the iPhone. CEO Epic appeared in court on May 20. Photo: Yahoo Finance. The trial took place in May with many fierce arguments, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is expected to announce the ruling next week. Here, Epic argues that if a 3rd-party app store appeared on the iPhone, developers could reduce the price of the app because it wouldn’t cost Apple 30% of the fee. Present in court, Tim Cook defended its stance on not allowing external app stores to appear on the iPhone. By comparing the amount of malware on iOS with platforms that allow the installation of 3rd party applications – Cook asserts that the iPhone accounts for only 1-2% of malware infections, while this rate on Android, Windows up to 30-40%. “If you look at the malware on iOS compared to Android and Windows, it’s really insignificant.” The numbers are on Apple’s side Cook’s view is reinforced by Report on smart device threats in 2020 published by Nokia. Accordingly, 26.64% of malware infections come from Android devices. This number is down from 47.15% in 2019. Nokia believes that security on Android has improved compared to before, in addition, hackers are gradually shifting attacks to IoT devices. Meanwhile, 38.92% of all malware infections originate from Windows PCs. The corresponding rate on Apple’s iPhone is only 1.72%. The rest belongs to other IoT devices. The rate of malware infection on iPhone is much lower than on other platforms. Photo: Yahoo Finance. Why the difference between the 3 operating systems? Professor Cappos says there are several factors at play, including iOS being updated more frequently than Android and Windows. Operating system updates will patch bugs that hackers can exploit with malware, making devices harder to jailbreak. In addition, Android and Windows are two of the most used platforms in the world, which makes them attractive targets for cybercriminals. Both the App Store and Play Store have automated malware detection processes, but Google has trouble allowing users to access 3rd-party app stores. Most security experts recommend not downloading it. download applications from these places due to the risk of malicious code insertion. Meanwhile, Windows allows users to install apps through the Windows Store or download them from anywhere on the web. Can’t “Security Flag” protect Apple? Apple does not disclose revenue from the App Store, instead, it bundles it with Services. This business, which includes Apple TV+, Apple Music+, and iCloud, will bring in $53.7 billion in 2020, or 20 percent of Apple’s $274 billion in total revenue. That proves the App Store is generating a lot of money for the company. With huge profits and strict controls on the app store, Apple may face accusations of unfair competition. According to Professor Shubha Ghosh of Syracuse University of Law , Apple needs to demonstrate that this business is up to the level of security it offers. Sometimes in the eyes of Judge Gonzalez Rogers, the 30% commission per transaction and the security of the platform don’t go together. Even security may not be the judge’s concern. “Antitrust courts don’t care so much about safety – they care about competition,” says Professor Sam Weinstein of Cardozo Law School explain. Why does Apple want to repair the iPhone itself? Apple wants to repair iPhones themselves instead of empowering 3rd parties or users.

Sony will bring many PlayStation exclusive games to PC. Photo: Sony Sony highlights that this is a new growth area for PlayStation Studios and will begin developing PlayStation Studios entry-level games for mobile devices. This will help their business, these games have the opportunity to find potential customers in big markets like: China, India or Russia, where they like play games on computer devices rather than game consoles. This test seems to have been successful, Sony’s partners will receive financial rewards from the porting of the exclusive PlayStation platform to PC. In 2020 the game Horizon: Zero Dawn helped investors get financing up to 250% return on investment when it was released on PC. In Sony’s latest financial report, the PlayStation 5 gaming device did not live up to expectations like the PS4 when the company saw a decline in sales per PS5 device. Sony’s games business had its best fiscal quarter ever with $8.4 billion in revenue and $763 million in profit, up 50% from 2019. Uncharted 4 or Days Gone, which are games available on PC, will be one of the new growth factors that Sony has discussed with investors, this is also a new challenge when Sony and its partners are facing competition. Huge paintings from other game makers like Fortnite are very popular all over the world.

At the center of this long-running lawsuit is Fortnite, a popular video game produced by Epic that was removed from Apple’s App Store last summer for violating Apple’s rules on technical billing. due to have arbitrarily established a payment system of their own. Apple takes 30% of the value of in-app purchases on iOS devices and does not allow the use of alternative payment systems. Fortnite’s removal from the App Store prompted Epic to file a lawsuit against Apple. Squeeze the developer Epic accuses Apple of having monopolistic control over the “ecosystem” of the iOS operating system, with app makers forced to abide by its strict restrictions if they want access to hundreds of thousands of users. million iPhone and iPad users, Apple also countered that there are several other places where users can buy apps and their commissions help the company make its devices better and more secure. The CEO has his first court appearance since taking power at Apple. Photo: Getty. Several executives from both sides also testified, including Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, and Phil Schiller, Apple’s former chief marketing officer, now serving as Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. new role as Apple Fellow. Both were subpoenaed by the court earlier this week. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is the first witness in the nearly three-week trial and is expected to end on Monday. Tim Cook and Apple are facing many dangers, not only this cult lawsuit. Cook’s testimony on Friday is likely to spark a battle against the growing antitrust pressure it is facing. Other “Frenemy” (meaning both friends and enemies) like Spotify and Match Group, the owner of Tinder, have all accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior. Even legal authorities in some countries including the US and UK have launched investigations into Apple’s regulations. Despite numerous defenses before Congress and numerous public appearances and interviews, Mr Cook appears to be preparing for his day in court. According to a report from Wall Street Journal , he spent many hours mock interrogation with former prosecutors to simulate what he might face during the trial. “The scary thing for Epic is that Tim Cook is such a compelling witness,” said Herbert Hovenkap, professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s doing what he’s been paid to do, which is bringing Apple’s lawsuit to the public.” According to the list of witnesses presented to the court, Mr. Cook will speak about “Corporate Values; Apple’s business operations and the development and launch of the App Store; the competition that Apple faces.” An Apple representative said Mr. Cook is likely to share more from his personal perspective on security and privacy issues – issues he has often criticized companies in the past – and the importance of them to Apple’s product philosophy. Roses come with quality Mr. Cook is expected to synthesize and strengthen the arguments that other Apple lawyers, experts and executives have made during the trial – that the iPhone’s App Store is not a proprietary trademark. The company argues that the 30% commission it receives through in-app purchases is not an illegal gain, but rather to make Apple devices better, more secure like their strict management of applications on Apple devices. In his testimony, Schiller highlighted the amount of money Apple has spent on research and development — an estimated $100 billion over the past 15 years — to make product improvements that developers are benefiting from. it. He also sought to counter Epic’s efforts to accuse Apple of being a monopolist. The lawsuit between Apple and Epic will determine the future of the relationship between app developers and Apple. Photo: Cnet. Epic Games company says Apple is forcing developers to play by its draconian rules such as only using the App Store and means of paying for in-app purchases if it wants to gain access to a market of more than a billion dollars. iPhone and iPad users. (Michael Schmid, Apple’s head of game business development for the App Store, revealed during the trial that Apple made more than $100 million in commissions from Fortnite.) Schiller also listed a range of Apple competitors: Google, Samsung, Motorola, Huawei and even game consoles like Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Switch. Apple claims that many of these companies also take 30% commissions and have similar restrictions on outside apps. “There are still a lot of other competitors in the distribution of applications, not just Apple,” he added. Federighi, the company’s chief software officer, further emphasized the importance of Apple’s security measures for the iOS operating system on its mobile devices. He even heavily criticized the company’s MacOS computer operating system during the trial. Unlike iPhones, Macbook laptops allow the use and download of applications from outside, a process known as “side-loading”. Epic has repeatedly pointed out and called on Apple to emulate this approach with its mobile devices. However, Apple’s lawyers and executives argue that the iPhone needs to be more secure because the risk of the device being exposed to security holes and exploitation is great, especially when smartphones are used. often contain more sensitive personal data of users than other devices such as computers, laptops… “If you take Mac security techniques and apply them to the iOS ecosystem, with so many devices and value for it, things are going to be a lot worse than they already are. on Mac,” said Mr. Federighi. “We now have a bunch of malware on Mac, which is much worse than iOS. It’s not acceptable!”. Florian Ederer, an economics professor at the Yale School of Management, thinks Cook will stick to his earlier arguments. “It is very difficult to get any new information or arguments from this CEO’s testimony that have not yet been brought to the attention of the judge,” he said. “Basically, having Cook in court is Apple’s best move to show the judge that they are taking this matter completely seriously. If there is any other purpose, perhaps it is the respect of Cook in particular and Apple in general for this lengthy litigation process,” Ederer added.

Accordingly, the group is asking Apple to return money to UK customers, with about 19.6 million people will be compensated a total of 1.5 billion pounds (equivalent to 2.1 billion USD). They believe that the US technology company has a monopoly when the App Store is the only “door” to download many applications to iPhone and iPad. The application emphasizes that after 13 years, the App Store is still the only source for Apple devices to access applications, proving that the company has been selfish, charging login fees and using this mechanism unfairly. They claim this is proprietary behavior. According to the lawsuit, Apple receives about 30% of the cost of purchasing an app. Apple, for its part, calls this a planned lawsuit and shouldn’t have happened. The company insists it is committed to its customers and that the App Store has greatly benefited the UK creative economy.
In addition, Apple is currently facing many legal challenges related to exclusivity when using the App Store because of a lawsuit for the same reason by Epic Games – the maker of the famous Fortnite game. according to iMore

Photo: Sina Technology According to CNBC, Apple today released a report on its App Store-related data, mainly describing the work the App Store has done in the direction of security and fraud prevention over the past year, and published a lot of related data. This is the first time Apple publishes such data, in this report, Apple does not point out what they bring to developers and users, but what they refuse to ensure safety and experience. App Store experience. Denied 1 million applications Since its inception in 2008, the Apple App Store has become the world’s largest distribution channel and app download platform. According to official data, up to now, there are a total of 1.8 million apps distributed on the app store in 175 different countries and regions around the world. In addition to the quantity, quality and safety of the App Store are also important reasons for many to choose, and even the reason why users switch from Android to iPhone. But the average user rarely thinks behind millions of apps is Apple’s attempt to secure apps on the platform. In fact, security threats have existed since the App Store was launched in 2008, and are becoming more sophisticated as the App Store has grown. Of course, Apple is also working to raise and improve its own security standards. In order for high-quality apps to be listed on the App Store and for developers and users to have the best experience, behind that is the efforts of the Apple App Store review team, including machines (the program AI detects), but Apple believes humans are the last line of defense. On the one hand, the review team develops relevant guidelines and is constantly updating to measure if an app meets Apple’s security standards at launch. On the other hand, many developers have encountered the case of having to submit apps multiple times before they hit the shelves, behind this being the tight scrutiny of Apple’s review team. The reason may be because their application is incomplete / not good enough or not satisfied Apple with the security requirements. In 2020, Apple’s app review team supported 180,000 new developers to bring their work to the App Store for the first time; However, due to the stringent app store rating criteria, many applications were rejected. According to Apple’s disclosure, they rejected 1 million new apps and 1 million app update requests last year. Let’s take a closer look at the apps that were denied on the list, partly because of a breach; There were also 215,000 applications rejected for asking for too much user data on mobile phones; 48,000 apps were rejected because they contained hidden functions, 150,000 apps were rated as spam or otherwise copied apps. All will affect the quality of the apps in the App Store in varying degrees, thereby affecting the user experience. These numbers represent Apple’s ambition to pursue its own high-quality app store and ecosystem, and is also the reason why many Android users “admire” the iOS ecosystem as mentioned above. . “Stone” 470,000 toxic developers Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center in 2018. In addition to denying apps, Apple sometimes punishes developers for violating the rules. For example, some developers intentionally change application functionality after passing a review or even engaging in criminals / crimes. The most common are gambling-related apps, illegal lending, and pornography; there are even apps for drug trafficking, sex chat, and more. According to Apple data, by 2020, about 95,000 apps will be removed from the App Store due to fraud and fraud. If a developer’s violation is severe or recurring, their account will be permanently closed. In 2020, Apple terminated 470,000 developer accounts because of the risk of fraud. In the past month alone, Apple blocked more than 3.2 million app installs through the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. The original purpose of this project was to allow large organizations like companies and businesses to develop apps for internal use only, not open to the public. But some people use this approach to “bypass” the internal application review and abuse process. Of course, no matter how tight the controls are, it’s inevitable that there are up to 1.8 million apps on the App Store. Apple has also opened up a feedback mechanism, users or developers can choose to “report a problem” function in the App Store or call Apple support. Stop $ 1.5 billion in fraud suspected transactions Problem security of Android is often compared with Apple. Since the Apple ID is tied to the payment account and is the “key” of the Apple ecosystem, it is also very easy to become a target for criminals. As a result, Apple is building more secure payment technologies, such as Apple Pay and StoreKit. Currently, more than 900,000 apps in the App Store are using these technologies to sell goods and services. For example, credit card information in Apple Pay won’t be shared with the merchant (and the merchant won’t see it), which eliminates risk factors in the checkout process. However, criminals can also use the App Store to purchase goods and services for money laundering or other improper purposes. According to official data, by 2020, Apple prevented more than 3 million stolen credit cards from being used to purchase goods or services through technical means + manual review. In addition, they block more than $ 1.5 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions”. The revelation comes amid Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit against Apple and focuses on the App Store failures. The Fortnite maker is looking to force Apple to remove 30% of the commission on in-app purchases. Epic lawyers have argued that Apple’s App Store is too “wall-bound,” hindering app makers from competing, and that Apple’s rules are unevenly applied to different developers. . The lawsuit filed by Epic Games calls for changes to the existing app review process and the use of other in-app payment systems. Epic also says Apple’s process is unfair, sometimes approving malware in the store. Apple employees argued in court that the number of errors it made was very small given the size of the App Store. Apple also strongly denies the abuse of market power, saying that the lawsuit Epic filed with is an “attack” on a business model that benefits developers as well as consumers. Apple has protected the App Store as an essential part of its business. Last week, an Apple lawyer argued that allowing users to install software from outside the App Store, like Android, creates a security risk and that Apple doesn’t want to be Android.

Epic Store offers titles from smaller indie titles like The Stanley Parable and Tormentor X Punisher to the blockbuster 3-A, Watch Dogs and Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Everything really exploded when in the summer of 2020, the Grand Theft Auto’s week-long free release dragged on players to land, and Epic’s server crashed just minutes later. All these special offers are out of pocket by Epic Games to enhance the brand’s identity, a small amount of money, luckily, the company has to pay the bills very quickly.

According to PC Gamer, Epic’s massive legal battle with Apple over Fortnite revenue on the App Store leaked the total amount invested in the Epic Store, around $ 444 million. And of course, 273 million of that is considered a net loss as Epic has launched a variety of free gift programs. However, the company is not too confused by this investment, but also hopes that profits will start to increase in 2023 and more than a quarter of a billion dollars is spent is only part of a long-term strategy.

This confidence is not without foundation, Epic guarantees a steady stream of profits from Unreal Engine and Fortnite. With Fortnite still considered one of the most successful battle royale games on the market today.