The Epic v. Google trial may come down to simple v. complicated

theverge.com:

Could Google actually lose?

When I walked into the courtroom on Monday morning, it seemed impossible. If Epic couldn’t prove Apple’s walled iOS garden is a monopoly, how could the comparatively open Google do worse against the windmill-tilting Fortnite developer?

But now that both sides have made their opening arguments to a jury, I’m not quite as sure. Because while Google spent most of its first day attempting to explain complicated ins and outs of business, Epic was able to paint a black-and-white picture of good and evil with itself as the clear underdog.

Epic lead attorney Gary Bornstein was tasked with making the case that Android functions as an unlawful monopoly. He did so by basically calling Google a bully and a cheat that “bribes” or “blocks” any attempt to compete with Android’s Google Play store. The result? A status quo where the vast, vast majority of Android app installs are from Google Play, with only a tiny sliver attributable to the Galaxy Store that comes preinstalled on every Samsung phone.

The future of Google’s app store is at stake in a lawsuit by Fortnite publisher Epic Games. Epic sued Google in 2020 after a fight over in-app purchase fees, claiming the Android operating system’s Google Play store constituted an unlawful monopoly — while Google says its demands would damage Android’s ability to offer a secure user experience and compete with Apple’s iOS.

Bornstein showed jurors charts of Google’s fat app profit margins (70 percent on $12 billion in revenue a year, says Epic) and pointed out several ugly-seeming ways Google has allegedly attempted to keep anyone from taking that money away — like paying game developers not to build their own app stores or standalone app launchers like Epic did