Apple's Tim Cook Says "Threat Profile" Of iPhone Justifies App Store Rules

Tim Cook is expected to spend more than two hours making what are likely to be his most extensive public remarks on the App Store, which anchors Apple's $53.8 billion services business.

Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook on Friday told a court the 'threat profile' of the iPhone required tight control of the App Store, which "Fortnite" game maker Epic Games says is a monopoly that Apple abuses. Cook is expected to spend more than two hours making what are likely to be his most extensive public remarks on the App Store, which anchors Apple's $53.8 billion services business. Epic has waged a public relations and legal campaign, arguing that Apple acts anticompetitively by only allowing apps it approves on the world's 1 billion iPhones and by forcing developers to use Apple's in-app payment system, which charges commissions of up to 30% on sales. Cook under questioning said he had higher concerns about the phone than Mac computers. "You have a phone in your pocket most of the time and you want instant service. We felt both the use cases and the threat profile would eventually be much greater because of the number of iPhones on the market."