Yesterday we highlighted here some documents released by both parties during the trial of the case. applevs. epic. The hearing started yesterday (March 3), but the final decision will not take less than three weeks to come out. Meanwhile, more previously confidential emails and statements have surfaced.
The controversy now concerns the clash between Apple and the Facebook. A sequence of messages dated 2011, revealed by Epic Games and verified by CNBC, gives us even more context about the battle between Mark Zuckerberg and Apple thanks to the App Store.
Facebook and the “built-in applications”
At that time, the social network had not yet released an application dedicated to the iPad, which had been presented to the world a year earlier. Scott forstall, then Apple’s chief software officer, sent an email to Phil Schiller Y Steve Jobs about a meeting he had with Zuckerberg. The issue? Bring Facebook to iPad.
In the message, Forstall told Zuckerberg that, to approve, Facebook should not include “embedded applications” within the application or redirect to Safari.
“It is not surprising that he was not happy with this, as he considers these applications to be part of the ‘full Facebook experience’ and is not sure if they should make an iPad application without them,” he wrote.
Like Orkut, Facebook began embedding games and applications on its platform. Several of them became a trend, such as Farmville, in which users tended the gardens in the style of Happy Harvest.
So Zuckerberg wanted to make a deal with Apple and suggested some topics for Forstall; one of them annoyed Jobs.
Facebook proposed redirecting users who tap one of the app’s links to that app (if the person had it installed) or to the App Store (if they didn’t have the app, to download it). If there was no other way, the link would redirect to Safari, the iPhone’s default browser.
Jobs and Schiller’s responses
Also in email with coworkers, Forstall wrote that among the issues raised by Zuckerberg, he would only remove the redirect to Safari. Steve Jobs replied: «I agree, if we delete the third proposal of the ‘Fecebook’ , it seems reasonable. “
Three days later, Forstall warned the former Apple CEO that, after a lengthy conversation with Zuckerberg, Facebook didn’t like the counterproposal. According to Mark, there is no obvious way to differentiate between a game of poker and the NYT. They are both developers and provide integration with Facebook, “said Forstall.
“I don’t see why we want to do this,” replied Schiller, now the leader of the App Store and events. “All these applications will not be native. They will not have a relationship or license with us, we will not review them, they will not use our APIsone or tools, they will not use our stores, etc. «
The Facebook application for iPad only came to light in October 2011 and, throughout this confrontation, an engineer from the social network even resigned. In a blog post, he claimed that the launch delay was due in part to “a troubled relationship with Apple.”
When it was launched, the Facebook application did not support its own credit currency to be used in applications like Farmville. All of this, of course, had previously been discussed between the parties.
Still, Apple and Facebook continue to fight. Last year, the social network endorsed the speech against the 30% charged by the Apple Store and has collided with the Application Tracking Transparency (ATT), a function that forces applications to ask users for permission to track them on sites web and applications.
We will see how these disputes play out.
