Fortnite sues Apple and google

Epic games and Apple spar over returning Fortnite to app store

September 29, 2020 by Arhama Altaf

Epic Games on Monday failed to convince a US judge to make Apple put its hit title Fortnite back in the tech giant’s App Store, while their legal battle heads for a possible trial next year.

The two firms are fighting over whether Apple’s tight control of the App Store, and its 30% cut of revenue, counts as monopolistic behaviour.

US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had previously rejected a similar request by Epic and appeared to remain unmoved at Monday’s hearing.

The judge said she didn’t expect a trial over the dispute to start until July of next year, at the earliest, given her calendar.

She advised Apple and Epic to request a jury to hear the case and is to issue a written explaining Monday’s ruling.

Apple does not allow users of its popular devices to download apps from anywhere but its App Store and developers have to use Apple’s payment system which takes its cut.

The legal battle comes as Apple puts a priority on selling digital content and subscription services to the one billion-plus people around the world using devices powered by its iOS mobile operating software.

Google wants to stay out of the feud between Apple and Epic

September 8, 2020 by Arhama Altaf

Search engine Google wants to stay out of of the ongoing battle between Apple and Epic over removal of the game Fortnite from App Store.

Google recently has requested district courts to keep it away from the matter where the ongoing legal battle of Epic and Apple is concerned.

Judges over various cases including Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is handling Epic vs Apple were considering relating Apple and Google to each other, a report stated.

Google has opposed this, claiming that there are enough differences between itself and Apple that there is little risk of conflicting results.”Although Android and iOS compete to attract app developers and end users, Google and Apple use different business models, agreements and policies to support competing ecosystems,” Google noted.

Apple only allows distribution of apps through its App Store whereas Android devices can have multiple app stores and are able to sideload via the internet.

Google also noted that there is no official complaint received by any entity as of now. Once it has been officially served, the search engine plans to challenge Epic’s company “in large part based on circumstances unique to Android.”

In the 30 days before the lawsuits were filed, App Store players spent $43.4 million on Fortnite, while the Google Play audience spent just $3.3 million.

Earlier, Apple permanently terminated Fortnite from its App Store.

“This was a clear warning to any other developer that would dare challenge Apple’s monopolies: follow our rules or we will cut you off from a billion iOS consumers – challenge us and we will destroy your business,” Epic Games said in its filing.

Apple working on its own search engine to take on Google: Reports

August 30, 2020 by Arhama Altaf

Tech giant Apple plans to bring its own search engine to take on Google, as per reports. There are several signs that suggest the California-based company could be working towards its own search engine.

These include the anti-competitive nature of Google, its regulatory concerns and job listings by Apple for AI experts and search engineers.

Moreover, a report states that with iOS 14 beta and iPadOS 14 beta, Apple’s Spotlight Search bypasses Google Search to show search results.

As per reports, Google has been paying Apple for several years to remain the default search engine on Safari for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

The deal ensures that iPhone, iPad, and Mac users search with Google when they use Safari. This is unless users manually change the default search engine preferences.

However, the deal is anti-competitive in nature, as per the UK Competition and Markets Authority and gives rise to regulatory concerns.

Apple, which recently became the first publicly listed US company to reach a market value of $2 trillion is inviting experts in a residency programme to apply their expertise to build revolutionary machine learning and AI empowered products and experiences, a report noted.

“As these intelligent experiences solve our users’ problems across disciplines, the need for domain experts to understand machine learning grows. This is why the AI/ML residency programme aims to immerse these experts in the ML space,” Apple said in a statement.

“Apple’s on-device machine learning enables intelligent experiences across our integrated hardware, software, and services,” the company said.

Apple’s threat against ‘Fortnite’ creator would hurt its games, says Microsoft

August 24, 2020 by Arhama Altaf

Apple’s threat to revoke Epic Games developer account would have far-reaching effects harmful to the videogame industry, Microsoft Corp. said.

The new filing by Epic comes amid a tense showdown with Apple AAPL, +5.15%, which has removed Epic videogames, such as the mega-popular ‘Fortnite,’ from its App Store over a violation of its payment rules.

Epic argued that Apple’s threat to also block its developer account would prevent other game developers from using its widely used Unreal Engine, which is used in the creation of 3-D graphics, harming ‘numerous third-party developers.’

Kevin Gammill, Microsoft’s general manager for Gaming Developer Experiences, agreed in a statement of support, saying the ban by Apple would put developers who use the Unreal Engine “at a substantial disadvantage,” since “there are very few other options available.”

“If Unreal Engine cannot support games for iOS or macOS, Microsoft would be required to choose between abandoning its customers and potential customers on the iOS and macOS platforms or choosing a different game engine when preparing to develop new games,” Gammill wrote.

However, Epic is seeking a court order to stop Apple’s termination of its developer accounts. Apple has said that it will reverse its moves if Epic resubmits a version of ‘Fortnite’ that complies with its payment rules.

On Friday, Apple said in a filing that Epic unilaterally decided to break its rules after following them for more than a decade, calling Epic’s removal from the App Store a ‘self-inflicted wound.’

Apple reverses move for WordPress to add in-app payments

August 23, 2020 by Arhama Altaf

Apple reversed course on a decision to force popular blogging platform WordPress to add in-app purchases to its app.

This move by Apple aims to lessen tensions between Apple and developers amid a public battle with Epic Games.

On Friday, WordPress said that Apple had informed it that it had 30 days to add in-app-purchases to its application, which would have given Apple a 30% cut of purchases of WordPress.com plans purchased via the app.

Apple’s request was questioned by developers online as the WordPress app previously didn’t offer a way to purchase plans inside their app, rather just on its website.

“We believe the issue with the WordPress app has been resolved,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement.

“Since the developer removed the display of their service payment options from the app, it is now a free stand-alone app and does not have to offer in-app purchases. We have informed the developer and apologize for any confusion that we have caused.”

The move was earlier seen by some as Apple forcing a developer to add purchases inside of its app in order to give the company a share of revenue that was not previously taken in by the app’s developers.

The App Store makes up a sizable portion of Apple’s $50 billion per year services business.

However, the tech giant says that WordPress submitted an update to the app that would have allowed customers to buy upgraded plans in the app, not via in-app-purchases.

WordPress previously advertised its plans in the app, without offering a way to purchase them directly.

“We will continue to be responsive and do our best to be within both the spirit and letter of the app store rules, including closing any webview loopholes that pop up”, WordPress’ founder, said in a tweet.

The latest decision on WordPress could calm tensions with developers, some of which have sided with Epic Games in a battle over the fees Apple charges developers.

Epic Games unilaterally decided to avert Apple’s payment structure, leading Apple to remove its Fortnite game from the App Store and threaten to revoke its developer account.

Apple added that it reviews 100,000 apps per week and intends to help developers keep their apps on the App Store. The iPhone maker said WordPress no longer violates the rule as it will no longer advertise the plans.

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