The soap opera between Apple and Epic Games is about to reach the highest. So much accumulated tension, fights and public reproaches will have their highest point the day the trial begins. That will be the beginning of the end and we assume that it will not take long to find out who of the two companies is right. If Apple defending that it does not exercise a monopoly or Epic Games on their quest to be "free". Be that as it may, each one will have to argue their case and Apple has already presented who will be in charge of defending the company. Apple's staff is on trial.
Apple has presented its list of witnesses for its upcoming trial against Epic Games. Several Apple executives to testify, including Apple's CEO Tim Cook, his Apple partner Phil Schillery, and Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi. Apple's witness list also includes app store vice president Matt Fischer. Head of Risk and Fraud Engineering Algorithms Eric Friedman. Commerce and Payment Director Eric Gray. Game Development Manager Mark Grimm and other employees in marketing, developer relations, and related fields.
The CEO of the company will be the one who is more time answering the questions of the parties. Cook and Federighi are expected to be vetted and answering questions for at least a couple of hours. Now, Schiller, who is in charge of the App Store, will testify during a total of 10 hours.
Our senior executives look forward to sharing with the court the very positive impact the App Store has had on innovation. Also in the economies of the world and the customer experience in the last 12 years. We are confident that the case will show that Epic deliberately breached their agreement solely to increase their income, which is what resulted in their removal from the App Store. In doing so, Epic circumvented the security features of the App Store in a way that would lead to less competition and put the privacy and security of consumer data at tremendous risk.
Epic witnesses include the CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney and other Epic employees, and outside witnesses will include executives from Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia and former iOS chief software officer Scott Forstall. Epic said in February that it was trying to contact Forstall, but was having a hard time locating him. Epic plans to call Forstall due to his involvement in the App Store launch prior to his departure from the company in 2013.
The trial will begin on Monday, May 3. It is a face-to-face trial but there will be no jury involved. Earlier this month, Judge Yvonne González pushed for an in-person trial, saying the case is "significant enough" for the court to hear in person. All the hygiene and sanitary security measures that exist will be complied with to guarantee that no one can be infected by the Coronavirus.
Less than two months then remain for the long-awaited trial to begin. We have talked a lot about this soap opera, because there has been a lot to tell. It is more important than we can think, because in case Epic Games takes the victory, it will mark a new way of seeing things at Apple. In addition, it will have to face an endless number of similar demands that will be coming from all its competitors and developers at any level. I do not think that Apple gets into these "aubergines" without having their backs well covered and without knowing what they are doing at all times.
We will be very attentive to see how the events unfold especially as the date of the trial approaches, I would not be surprised if a last minute surprise came. Especially from Epic Games. Some new event in Fortnite or a new announcement ... something may come. It's a hunch.