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apple cấm trò chơi, và epic kiện ra tòa án chống độc quyền...

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Last week, powerful video game publisher and software developer Epic Games introduced a new version of its Fortnite video game for the iPhone. The key change was that players could bypass (đi vòng hoặc tránh cái gì; dùng đường vòng; (nghĩa bóng) bỏ qua (một quy tắc, thủ tục) hoặc lờ đi không hỏi ý kiến (ai) để hành động cho nhanh; phớt lờ) Apple’s payment system (hệ thống thanh toán) for in-game purchases (mua sắm trong trò chơi), and use a proprietary (thuộc chủ, thuộc quyền sở hữu) Epic payment option instead. Such a move breached (vi phạm) Apple’s terms (điều khoản) for its app store, because Apple requires (yêu cầu) anyone who makes an app for the iPhone to use the Apple payments system. Such a requirement is how the corporation makes money directly from the app store; Apple’s payment system charges a 30% tax for any revenue (doanh thu) generated by any iPhone app during its first year. Apple’s control over its app store has become a source of controversy (nguồn gây tranh cãi), mostly because the corporation exploits (khai thác) its power over iPhones to extract (bòn, rút) high fees from developers.

During the Congressional hearings (phiên điều trần tại quốc hội) over the market power (sức mạnh thị trường) of large technology firms, Apple CEO Tim Cook insisted that Apple had little market power over mobile apps, because developers and consumers could always switch over to different types of phones or platforms on which to create software. Epic’s attempt to restructure terms with Apple is a great test case for Cook’s argument. One would expect, based on Cook’s views, that developers of popular apps have leverage against Apple, if Apple had little market power over app stores. Certainly, Epic’s Fortnite is popular, a massive multi-billion dollar game, as close to a must-have app as possible.

Without blinking (không chớp mắt, ngay lập tức), however, Apple blocked Epic’s app from its store, which shows that Cook’s argument about a competitive market (thị trường cạnh tranh) was just wrong. No one, no matter how powerful, has any bargaining leverage with Apple over its app store, and competition is certainly not disciplining the iPhone maker. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney responded to Apple’s ban not with a modification of its app, but with an antitrust suit (and a parallel though less important suit against Google).

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