Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured above giving a speech on privacy) accused Epic Games of wanting to “make the App Store a flea market”, in a new interview with the Toronto Star. His comments come as the companies have laid out their legal arguments and are preparing to appear in court.
Apple Boss Touts App Store Job Creation Ahead of Epic Court Battle
The Apple CEO was pretty disparaging about the views put forward by Epic. “At the heart of the Epic complaint is they’d like developers to each put in their own payment information,” he said. “But that would make the App Store a flea market and you know the confidence level you have at the flea market.”
He also reiterated other elements of his company’s stance as it prepares for the court battle. Having spoken with four Canadian developers at a virtual roundtable, he emphasized the jobs the App Store helps provide too calling it “one of the fastest-growing job segments.”
“There are 243,000 developers who are making their living in Canada on the App Store,” continued Mr. Cook. “There’s more than that who are registered, but those are the ones where there’s a full-time job created.”
Discussing the ecosystem more broadly Mr. Cook said:
The view I have is Apple’s not dominant in any market it’s in. There’s fierce competition everywhere. Worldwide, our (market) share is in the teens. Hardly what anybody would say is dominant.
It’s worth noting that Epic’s court filing argues Apple’s smartphone operating share, when looked at by revenue, is 40 percent. Indeed,