See Apple CEO Tim Cook's best moments before Congress

My name is Tim Cook. I've been Apple CEO since 2011, and a proud employee of this uniquely American company since 1998. [MUSIC] Before I began, I wanna recognize the life and legacy of John Lewis. I join you in mourning not only a hero, but someone I knew personally, whose example inspires and guides me still, every American owes John Lewis a debt. And I feel fortunate to help from a state and a country that benefited so profoundly from his leadership. My name is Tim Cook. I've been Apple CEO since 2011. And a proud employee of this uniquely American company since 1998. At Apple, we make ourselves a promise and our customers the promise, it's a promise that will only build things that make us proud. Steve put it, we only make things that we'd recommend to our family and friends. You could try to define this difference in a lot of ways. You can call it the seamless integration of hardware and software. You can call it simplicity of design or a great ecosystem. All of those things are true. But if you want to put it simply, products like iPhone just horror when customers consistently give iPhone a 99% satisfaction rating, that's the message they're sending about the user experience. But we also know that customers have a lot of choices and that our products face fierce competition. companies like Samsung, LG, Huawei and Google have built successful businesses with different approaches. We're okay with that. Our goal is the best, not the most. In fact, we don't have a dominant share in any market or in any product category where we do business. What does motivate us is that Timeless drive to build new things that we're proud to show our users. We focus relentlessly on those innovations on deepening core principles like privacy and security and on creating new features. In 2008, we introduced a new feature of the iPhone called the App Store. launched with 500 apps, which seemed like a lot at the time. The App Store provided a safe and trusted way for users to get more out of their phone. We knew the distribution options for software developers at the time didn't work well. brick and mortar stores charged high fees and had limited reach. physical media like CDs had to be shipped and were hard to update. From the beginning, the app store was a revolutionary alternative. App Store developers set prices for their apps and never pay for shelf space. We provide every developer with cutting edge tools like compilers, programming languages, and more than 150,000 a central software building blocks called API's. The App Store guidelines ensure a high quality, reliable and secure user experience. They are transparent and applied equally to every developer. For the vast majority of apps, developers keep 100% of the money they make. The only apps that are subject to a condition are those where the developer acquires a customer on an Apple device, and where the features or services would be experienced and consumed on an Apple device. In the app stores more than 10 year history, we have never raised the commission or added a single fee. In fact, we've reduced it for subscriptions and exempted additional categories of apps. I'm here today because scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate. We approach this process with respect and humility. But we make no concession on the facts. What began as 500 apps is now more than 1.7 million. Only 60 of which are Apple software. If Apple is a gate keeper, what we've done is open the gate wider. We wanna get every app we can on the store, not keep them off. The app store's economic contributions are significant. The ecosystem is responsible for 1.9 million jobs in all 50 states and it facilitated 130 8 billion in commerce in the US in 2019. alone. I share the committee's belief that competition promotes innovation, that it makes space for the next great idea and that it gives consumers more choices. Since Apple was founded, these things have defined us. The first Mac brought opportunity and possibility into the home The iPod helped musicians and artists to share their creations and be paid fairly for it. This legacy does much more than make us proud. It inspires us to work tirelessly to make sure tomorrow. Will be even better than today. Thank you very much. I look forward to responding to your questions.>> Apple is the sole decision maker as to whether an app is made available to app users through the Apple Store. Is that correct? If it's a native app, yes, sir, if it's a web app. Thank you. And throughout our investigation, we've heard concerns that rules governing the App Store review process are not available to the app developers. The rules are made up as you go. They are arbitrarily interpreted and enforced and are subject to change whenever Apple sees fit to change, and developers have no choice but to go along with the changes or they must leave the App Store. That's an enormous amount of power. Also, the rules get changed to benefit apple at the expense of app developers. And the App Store is said to also discriminate between app developers with similar apps on the app platform and also as to small app developers versus large app. Developers. So, Mr. Cook, does Apple not treat all app developer as equally? Sir, we treat every developer the same. We have open and transparent rules. It's a rigorous process. Because we care so deeply about privacy and security and quality. We do look at every app before it goes on. But those apps, those rules apply evenly to everyone. And as you can tell by going from. Some developers are favored over others though, isn't that correct? That is not correct. And as you can tell from going from 100. I'll give you an example. Baidu has two app stores. To App Store, employees assigned to help it navigate the App Store bureaucracy. Is that true? I don't know about that, sir. Well, you don't have other app developers who have that same access to Apple, or. Personnel Do you? We do a lot of things with developers, including looking at their beta test apps, regardless of whether they're small or large. Okay, well, let me ask you this question. Apple has negotiated exceptions to its typical 30% commission and for some apps like Amazon prime is that is a reduced commission such as the one that Amazon Prime get available to other app developers. It's available to anyone needing the conditions yes.- Okay let me ask you this. Apple requires all app developers to use Apple's payment processing system if those developers want to sell their goods or services to Apple users through. Apple's App Store is that correct? That is correct because it's processing and By processing payments for apps that you allow into the app store, you collect their customer data and you use that data to inform Apple as to whether Apple Should whether or not it would be profitable for Apple to launch a competing app ain't that correct? Sir 84% of the apps are charged nothing. The remaining 16% either pay 15 or 30 depending upon the The specifics, if it's in the second year of a subscription, as an example it only pays 15%. If you look at the history. What's to stop Apple from increasing it's commission to 50%? [BLANK_AUDIO] Sir we have never increased commissions in the store since the first day it operated in 2008. There's nothing to stop you from doing so is it? No sir, I disagree strongly with that there is a competition for developers just like there's a competition for customers. And so the competition for developers, they write their apps for Android or Windows or Xbox or Playstation. So we have fierce competition out the developer side and the customer side, which is essentially it's so competitive. I would describe it as a street fight for market share in the smartphone business. Have you ever retaliated against or disadvantage a developer who went public about their frustrations with the app store? Sir, we don't we do that do not retaliate or bully people. It's strongly against our company culture. Do you believe that the Chinese government steals technology from US companies? Start with Mr. Cook. I don't know of specific cases where we had been stolen from by the government.>> So you don't believe that the Chinese government stealing technology from US companies or you're just saying that not from yours I'm saying I know of no case, hours where it occurred, which is I can only speak to first hand knowledge. In 2018. Apple introduced an app called screen time, which helps people limit the amount of time they or their kids spend on their iPhones. Is that correct? It sounds right. Okay. But before screentime existed there were other apps in the app store that gave parents control over the kids phone usage. apps like our pact and kids locks and parents depended on them. Soon after you introduce screentime however you removed these competing apps from the App Store. One mother wrote to Apple saying and I quote her, I am deeply disappointed that you have decided to remove this app and others like it, thereby reducing consumer access to much needed services to keep children safe and protect Their mental health and well being. Mr. Cook. Why did Apple remove competing apps right after you released screentime? We were concerned Congresswoman about the privacy and security of kids. The technology that was being used at the time was called MDM. And it had the ability to sort of take over the kids screen and a third party could see it and so we were worried about their safety. Okay, thank you, I appreciate that- Today we have- I appreciate that but the timing of the removal seems Very coincidental. If Apple wasn't attempting to harm competitors in order to help its own app. Why did Phil Schiller who runs the App Store promote the screentime app to customers who complained about the removal of rival Parental Control apps Congresswoman, I can't see this email. I'm sorry, my eyes are not good enough to read it. But I see screen time is just an alternative that there are over 30 Parental Control apps That are in the app store today. And so there is vibrant competition for parental controls out there. You know, this is not the first time something like this seems to have happened, Mr. Cook. Let me give you another example. You know of the harm that's been caused to your competitors. In 2010, Apple introduced an online Bookstore called the iBooks. Store were offered ebooks, and the only major publisher that didn't agree to join iBooks store was Random House. Random House wanted to offer its own ebooks through its own apps, and submitted their apps to be added to the App Store admits Continued negotiations between Apple and Random House, Senior VP Eddy Cue said and I'm quoting him when he said, it prevented an app from Random House from going live in the App Store. Q himself cited this app rejection as a factor and finally getting Random House. To give in and join iBook store, Mr. Cook, is it fair for Apple to use its power over the App Store to pressure a business to join Apple's own app. I can't say the email and so I don't know the context of it. But there are there are many reasons why an app might not initially go through The App Store gate because it may or may not work properly. There may be other issues with it. So it's very difficult to say what I would say though, on a macro basis the gate to the the App Store is very wide. We have 1.7 million apps in it. It's become an economic miracle. Okay, With over $138 billion of commerce, Justin. I really, really appreciate that sentiment. But you know, I want to say to you that Apple enjoys enormous power to control which apps can reach consumers, even some of the largest companies in the country. Fear your power. Our evidence suggest that your company has used its power to harm your rivals and boost your own business. This is fundamentally unfair and harm small businesses that rely on you to reach customers as it stifles the innovation that is the lifeblood of our economy. Ultimately, it reduces the competition And choices that are made available to consumers and that is a great concern to all of us.