What you need to know
- Apple's answers to questions posed by a government judiciary committee have been published.
- The questions were asked by the Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary.
- Key revelations include Apple's spending on its Maps app, repair profits, and employee arbitration cases.
Apple's answers to questions as posed by the Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary have been published.
The document features 43 questions covering a range of topics. The questions come from David N.Cicilline, Chairman of the above-named subcommittee, and were answered by Apple's VP of Corporate Law, Kyle Andeer.
The questions cover a range of topics including; Apple's default iOS browser, Safari; App Store revenue; the cost and profitability of repairs and employee arbitration.
The first few questions cover Safari in iOS, with the first question asking whether iPhone users were permitted to uninstall Safari, and if not, why? (I know, it gets better don't worry.) There were also questions about default browsers on iOS, the use of WebKit and more.
Question seven queries how 84% of apps on the App Store don't share any revenue with Apple. The answer is of course that those apps are free. (Maybe it doesn't get better.)
A question about Apple Maps revealed that Apple has invested "Billions of dollars" in the app since its launch in 2012. There were also questions about Apple's repair policies, and why it prevents some independent repair stores from accessing many of its spare parts and manuals. The biggest turn up in this section was the revelation that Apple doesn't make any money from its repair services, in fact, it stated:
For each year since 2009, the costs of providing repair services has exceeded the revenue generated by repairs.
Further questions include topics such as Siri data, specifically what kind of data Apple collects, and who was access to it. There were also questions about arbitration, to which one answer revealed that two former Apple employees have initiated arbitration proceedings, both over wrongful termination claims.
The full document is a pretty dense read, but if you're interested, you can check it out here!
