The Epic Games vs Apple trial revealed more details of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Apple and Microsoft and other companies, including requests to bypass App Store commissions. An email in 2012 revealed Microsoft’s launch of Office for iPad and Apple’s reaction to the news. According to CNBC reports, Apple executives asked Microsoft if they wanted to participate in the WWDC that year. Microsoft declined, on the grounds that it is not ready to discuss its iPad plans.
Relevant personnel including App Store executives Phil Schiller and Eddie Kuy also detailed some of Microsoft’s requirements. First, Microsoft hopes that Schiller and Kuy will meet with their own executives, such as Kirk Konisbauer, the current senior vice president of Microsoft, and the Apple team agrees.
However, Microsoft also requires Apple to allow it to redirect users to its own website to help users make purchases and bypass the 30% commission in the App Store. Schiller refused this request, he said in an email: “We operate a store, we collect revenue.”
Other documents and communications disclosed in the Epic v. Apple trial show that the two companies have had a friendly cooperative relationship in the past few years.
For example, Apple seems to be interested in persuading Epic Games to support its ARKit augmented reality platform. Emails between Epic executives in 2017 indicated that a meeting was held with Apple to discuss the use of iPhone’s facial tracking technology to create animated characters.
Discussions about ARKit between the two companies will continue until 2020. For example, after Apple released the iPad Pro with LiDAR, company executives offered Epic Games the opportunity to meet with the Apple ARKit team. It also raised the possibility of Apple promoting Epic Games at the WWDC that year.
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