Tim Cook says App Store will become a 'flea market' if Epic wins lawsuit

Tim Cook People
Tim Cook People (Image credit: Brooks Kraft/Apple)

What you need to know

  • Tim Cook sat down for a virtual interview with the Toronto Star.
  • The CEO talked about the App Store's impact in Canada as well as the upcoming Epic Games trial.

Tim Cook thinks that, if Epic Games had its way, the App Store would become a cesspool of sleazy salesmen and door-to-door charlatans.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, the CEO talked about the effect that the App Store has had in Canada. He warned about the impact of the Epic Games lawsuit, saying that the App Store would become more like a flea market if app developers were able to bypass the company's payment system.

"At the heart of the Epic complaint is they'd like developers to each put in their own payment information. But that would make the App Store a flea market and you know the confidence level you have at the flea market," Cook said."The volume of people going into such a market would be dramatically lower, which would be bad for the user, because they would miss out on the innovation like we just heard with the four developers. And the developers would be left out because they wouldn't have a huge audience to sell to. So nobody wins in that environment.

While Epic Games has claimed Apple as a monopoly, Cook also pushes back against that.

"The view I have is Apple's not dominant in any market it's in. There's fierce competition everywhere," Cook told the Star. He said there is a "street fight" for market share in the smartphone world, adding "Worldwide, our (market) share is in the teens. Hardly what anybody would say is dominant."

Cook believes that the company will prevail in the Epic Games lawsuit which is set to begin next month.

"I believe if we tell the story, the facts, if we can communicate those clearly, then I'm confident that we should prevail," Cook said of the trial with Epic.

You can read the full interview at the Toronto Star.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.