Sean Hollister

The carriers would compete with Android Market?

“That was part of the design. It has always ben an intention, as part of Android, to enable other stores” and other ways to download apps, he testified.

In an FAQ he drafted for the Android Market in 2008, he wrote “Google will not be operating the Android Market as a profit center” and “Google will collect a small charge to cover costs of handling and billing.”

We learned earlier today that, in 2020, Google internally claimed that Google Play had become one of the most profitable businesses in the world and key to Android P&L — literally a profit center for Google.

In a blog post he drafted that year, he wrote: “Developers will get 70% of the revenue from each purchase; the remaining amount goes to carriers and billing settlement fees — nothing goes to Google.” But according to an email we just saw, Google decided it should take 5 percent for processing fees.

He left Google for Meta / Facebook.

Pichai answered yes. Outside of some recent changes, “The employees have to make the decision.”

What were the changes? “My understanding is we change the chat to be default-on now for all Googlers.”

“So it’s done a 180, the default now is on for all employees unless someone opts out?” Yes, as of Q1 of this year.

We’re going on lunch — and Pichai is done being a witness. We might come back with Android boss Hiroshi Lockheimer.

Someone might ping him to schedule a meeting on a related topic, he suggests, but he wouldn’t discuss it there.

He could not swear in court that he’d never, ever chatted on a substantive topic. “Not that I recall,” he says.

“Are you aware that Google produced 8 chats total with you as a participant?” asked Epic lawyer Moskowitz.

“I was not aware of that,” he says.

“That’s part of my understanding, I’m not a legal expert.”

“And you understand Google relied on individual users to decide whether the subjects they were discussing were relevant,” she asks in a follow-up.

Pichai says he relied on his legal and compliance teams. The buck does not stop with Pichai here, then; Kent Walker can’t get here soon enough.

“Do you believe that Netflix offers the Netflix app for sideloading by users on Android?”

“I do not recall them doing so,” he admits.

Now, we’re debating if he knows how many steps it takes to install an app on a PC versus an Android phone after downloading from a website. He repeatedly says he doesn’t know exactly how many steps any given thing takes but admits it probably takes fewer steps on a PC.

On Android, he suggests it may only take a few steps, particularly if a user has already turned on Unknown Sources.

“Our mission is to provide access to information, to make it universally accessible and useful,” says Pichai.

“Android is unprecedented, there’s never been a free and open operating system that’s reached two and a half billion users,” he adds.

“We’re trying to strike a balance. Apple’s iPhone only allows the App Store, but we believe in choice, so on Android we allow you to sideload and install additional applications.”

“It’s like a seatbelt in a car, we are adding the protections so you can use it safely.”