Apple CEO faces tough questioning as Epic Games trial wraps up

What would be wrong with the app presenting users with the option to make that more affordable purchase—or at least providing that information to the users in the app?Cook responded that "if you allow people to link out like that, you would essentially give up the total return on our IP." Earlier in his testimony, Cook said by way of analogy that letting apps direct consumers to commission-free purchase options outside of the App Store "would be akin to Apple going out to Best Buy, putting a sign there where we advertise you can go across the street to the Apple Store to buy an iPhone. "You can imagine if we had an above-market commission, people just wouldn’t develop for us," he said.Before Rogers' direct questioning, Cook testified that a loss for Apple in the trial "would be terrible for the user" if it led to the introduction of competing app store options on iOS. In a world with competing iOS app stores, the lawyer suggested, people who value Apple's curation "could still go shop at Apple [and its App Store]."Cook said he feels that "seems like a decision [iOS users] shouldn’t have to make... It’s my business judgement."Cook added that he doesn't know if users would be able to easily differentiate between competing iOS app stores and the one provided by Apple and that it's "a complexity they shouldn't have to deal with." But Epic's counsel noted that users today already differentiate between the curated App Store and the unregulated world of web apps and other unmoderated content on iOS's Safari browser.Epic's counsel also pointed out that the iOS App Store keeps track of the content users view and download, while competing iOS app store options might offer even more privacy on this score.