Apple ‘s Tim Cook and other tech companies’ CEOs will appear before the House Judiciary Committee and the Antitrust Subcommittee today. Apple has submitted Tim Cook’s prepared opening statement in full, which you can read here, but following are some of the highlights:
° “Apple does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business. That is not just true for iPhone; it is true for any product category.
° “We created the App Store in 2008 as a feature of iPhone. Launching with a little more than 500 apps, it was our ambitious attempt to dramatically expand the feature and customizability of every user’s device. We wanted to create a safe and trusted place for users to discover apps — and a means of providing a secure and supportive way for developers to develop, test, and distribute apps to iPhone users globally.”
° “For the vast majority of apps on the App Store, developers keep 100% of the money they make. The only apps that are subject to a commission care those where the developer acquires a customer on an Apple device and where the features or services would be experienced and consumed on an Apple device.”
° “Apple’s commissions are comparable to or lower than commissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they are vastly lower than the 50 to 70 percent that software developers paid to distribute their work before we launched the Apple Store.”
