Apple lawyers comment on walled garden claims in Epic suit

May 4, 2021 14:03 GMT  ·  By

The Apple vs. Epic lawsuit has officially started, and just as expected, the opening remarks brought a series of very interesting comments, including some related to the famous walled garden that the Cupertino-based tech giant has managed to build around its products.

Epic’s lawyers accused Apple of creating an ecosystem that’s tightly controlled by the company, without allowing developers to create their own stores on iOS and introduce direct payment systems.

“Epic wants us to be Android,” Apple’s lawyers have reportedly responded.

“But we don’t want to be,” they continued, explaining this is the reason users can’t sideload apps on the iPhones. On Android, users who don’t want to install apps from the Google Play Store or other app stores can just use the stand-alone APK installers for the whole thing, though this approach obviously comes with a series of risks.

And Apple claims this is the reason it doesn’t want to embrace this idea, as building a locked ecosystem allows the company to block all the threats that naturally come with the sideloading of apps.

Apple: This is why people buy an iPhone

The lawyers of the Cupertino-based firm went on to explain that Apple’s commitment to this approach is the reason so many customers get an iPhone.

“Our customers don’t want that either,” they continued when discussing the Android-inspired strategy.

The legal fight between Apple and Epic is still in its early days, so statements like this will continue to make the headlines as the two sides defend their claims in the court.

The battle started back in the summer of 2020 when Apple removed Epic’s Fortnite from the App Store after discovering that the game with its very own built-in payment option. Epic has then moved the dispute to court, trying to prove Apple abuses its power in the iOS ecosystem.