Apple's Tim Cook just ruined Epic's day

The ongoing trial featuring Apple and Epic Games has moved in an interesting direction as Apple's CEO Tim Cook took the stand to discuss customer privacy and the Apple App Store's security.

Apple's Tim Cook Argues for "Human Judgment"

Throughout his testimony today, Cook has touched on several topics that have individuals across the globe concerned, as the issues he discussed could apply to situations beyond Apple.

Apple CEO @tim_cook testifying in federal court in the battle against Epic pic.twitter.com/tf3Y8KjaWq

— Yasmin Khorram (@YasminKhorram) May 21, 2021

Though his testimony only lasted a couple of hours, Cook managed not to say much outside of a few interesting comments. Beginning with his thoughts on why Apple, as a brand, prefers to have total control over what users can and cannot do with their devices, Cook commented that "human judgment" is necessary in deciding what users should have on their iPhones.

Cook is also reported as saying that the only safe computer is "one entirely vetted by Apple". In attempting to create a false narrative that may cause non-Mac users to switch, while other devices with other operating systems are perfectly fine, Cook is not necessarily doing the favor he thinks he is to his company.

Apple hesitates to embrace any third party app store because @tim_cook says their products cannot be as fully vetted for security and privacy. #applevsepic

— Anne Makovec (@AnneKPIX) May 21, 2021

Additionally, Cook denied certain speculated tactics regarding the App Store's profitability as he supports anti-steering, which restricts developers to promoting their work only within the Apple App Store. This, of course, benefits Cook and Apple as they earn commission on these sales.

The focus of Cook's time on the stand shifted from profitability to Apple's mass dedication, to the perfect curation of what it supplies its users, to then very briefly to China's role in Apple's operations. However, not much is truly revealed regarding any of these topics as Cook avoids having the knowledge required to respond to most of the legal inquiries he faced.

The trial ended with Tim Cook admitting that he is not a gamer, which came as no surprise to most of the community involved in this trial. Currently, it is unclear how this will affect the trial as a whole, or Epic Games' ability to bring Fortnite back to iOS players.