Australian Apple user numbers revealed as Epic Games mounts its case against app stores

Epic Games says Apple engaged in anti-competitive behaviour and to help its case referred to Google emails about app placement – while winning court approval to reveal Apple user numbers.

Fortnite maker Epic Games has accused Google of anti-competitive conduct. Picture AFP

Epic Games has gone deep into the archives as it mounts its case against app store operators Google and Apple, pulling out emails which date back as far as 2010.

Those emails pertain to internal correspondence between Google’s now chief executive, Sundar Pichai, and former Google executive Alan Eustace over complaints from Mr Eustace’s wife, who had trouble finding Google Chrome on a mobile device.

“There’s nothing more important than getting people to use Google as their default home page and their default search engine,” Mr Eustace wrote. “We’ve done dozens of studies on the explorer default search flows to know that adding any steps between a user and an action dramatically reduces the chances that they will follow that flow.”

Mr Pichai wrote, according to the documents: “No, reminder needed on the importance of defaults. Probably done more here at Google to drive defaults than anyone else. We care a lot about this.”

Sydney barrister Garry Rich, SC assisting Neil Young, KC, who is leading Epic’s case, was attempting to make a point about the placement of apps on the home screens of devices.

“This demonstrates that Google’s proposition in its written submissions that these are sort of minimal advantages, is contrary to their own asset internal assessment of the importance of having icons readily available and apparent on the home screen,” he told the court.

The placement of apps on a home screen is one of several arguments Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, is using as it accuses Google of anti-competitive conduct with its own app store, the Play Store.

Epic Games has also accused Apple of abusing its market power by charging 30 per cent of all money made on mobile apps and not allowing its own payment services. Tuesday was day two of what is likely to be a 16-week trial.

Epic Games claims that Google has downplayed the importance of app placement and the pre-loaded apps on mobile devices which use the Google-owned Android operating system.

Citing data from Japanese telco Docomo, Mr Rich said the telco found users were 3.9 times more likely to use pre-loaded apps. “Default home screen placement of your app with the icon makes a considerable difference,” he said.

The court also heard of the notices Google displayed to users attempting to download apps from outside of its Play Store, including Fortnite.

One notice, read to the court, told those attempting to download Fortnite that they would be responsible for any malware that was installed as a result and any loss of data.

“Suggesting that the Epic Games app might damage their phone or will result in a loss of data would discourage many people from proceeding naturally,” Mr Rich said.

Earlier in the day, the number of Australian Apple users was also revealed for the first time, despite Apple requesting it not be shared for confidentiality reasons.

The number of Apple iPhone and iPad users, which Apple had once claimed was commercially sensitive, has been revealed as about 20 million as of the second quarter of the 2022 financial year, after Justice Jonathan Beach overruled Apple’s claim in a matter of public interest.

“The public interest ought not to restrict public disclosure of that type of information,” Justice Beach said before allowing the figure to be revealed.