178 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

    More From Sean Hollister

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “You just went to a website and used it.”

    It seems Epic is trying to draw a difficult link between 1) Google not having a scary “Unknown Sources” install flow for its Chrome Web Store — and offering a low 5 percent fee — and 2) what’s happening with Android sideloading.

    “This is apples and oranges, right?” says Pichai. “There was no downloading of a web application; you would just go to the site and use it.” This is basically true: web apps are a thing.

    We’re watching an ancient video of young Pichai announcing that web store’s payments functionality. (He used to be in charge of Chrome, before he rose up the ranks.)

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “So a user going to AmazonAppStore.com is treated exactly the same as I’ll-steal-your-info.com?” Yes, says Pichai.

    “That’s right. We don’t distinguish between the URLs,” says Google’s CEO.

    We’re talking about sideloading friction, which Epic argues (and Google admitted internally) kept a sideloaded version of Fortnite from being financially viable.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “Friction can have benefits, but yes.”

    Pichai says yes, its Unknown Sources warnings do create friction for those who want to sideload apps on Android instead of downloading them from the Play Store.

    Check “sideloading” on your bingo card.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Pichai admits Google pays Apple a 36 percent revenue share for search results.

    Google’s CEO is not trying to deny or steer that it shares 36 percent of mobile search revenue with Apple in exchange for iPhone default search and pays as much as $18 billion for it in total a year.

    Epic did not get Pichai to admit that it pays Samsung half as much for search defaults at 16 percent. Pichai says that for Samsung phones, Google pays the carrier, too.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “It might impact their sales, so I don’t think practically that they would.”

    That’s Google CEO Sundar Pichai, changing his answer to the court about whether OEMs would really put Google Play right on the homescreen if they weren’t contractually obligated by Google’s MADA contracts. He also got in a mention of competing with Apple.

    In an earlier deposition, he told the court they might place it elsewhere. “I would assume so, yes.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Pichai says he was “aware” of Amazon and Samsung making moves on Google Play but was not “concerned” about Facebook.

    Epic: “You have no evidence that Facebook was trying to launch an app distribution platform on Android?”

    Pichai: “Not that I was concerned about.”

    Also, check “MADA” and “Right on the homescreen” on your bingo card; Moskowitz said the first, and something that’s so close to the second that I’ll allow it.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Did Pichai want to “revisit the rules” so rivals wouldn’t “take our ecosystem away?”

    Pichai has been presented with a typed summary of a meeting between him and other Android leaders on April 16th, 2013 — where he suggested the following (as paraphrased by Google that week):

    Should we revisit the rules, now we aren’t an upstart open source os? Not that we should stop anything we are doing right now, but over next two weeks take the time to step back and look at the overall situation. Nightmare scenario is we lose control of Android ... can’t take what we have here for granted.”

    These were some of Android leader Hiroshi Lockheimer’s two cents:

    How do we prioritize and sequence thing (sic) so we don’t lose control. The world is a different place back in 2007, and now there are companies that want to take our ecosystem away.”

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    Mark “OEMs” on your bingo card.

    We’re not 100 percent sure what Epic attorney Moskowitz is driving at quite yet, but she’s repeatedly asking Pichai questions about how OEMs work — and if smartphone manufacturing OEMs have the ability to preinstall their own apps.

    So far, he’s saying yes. It’s too early for anybody to have a BINGO quite yet, but we’re moving swiftly!

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “That’s how the product works, and I understand how the product works.”

    Pichai continues to insist that it was a glitch.

    Epic is moving on to different questions now.

    Sean Hollister
    Sean Hollister
    “I would expect employees to uphold those instructions.”

    Pichai roundabout agrees with Epic lawyer Moskowitz’s question that, as far as he knew, Google was preserving all its relevant chats following legal holds.

    Now, he’s being presented with that time he asked for history off himself (see below), meaning that the rest of the conversation was automatically deleted after 24 hours due to Pichai’s request. He says he was working on a document for an external event.

    Moskowitz is pointing out that Pichai didn’t just ask for history off — he also seemingly attempted to delete his request, which makes him look guilty.

    He says he didn’t recall deleting it and is attempting to suggest it was a glitch.

    A screenshot from an exhibit from the case showing Pichai asking somebody to turn off chat history.