He says that’s correct — and that he was head of Android and Google Play apps businesses before he became CEO, too.
“Is it fair that for the last 10 years you’ve been responsible for Android and Google Play?”
He says he had subordinates, but yes.
He’s here, and as in the US v. Google trial, he’s literally taking a stand — behind the podium that Google requested last week.
That’s Judge James Donato — he’ll be allowing Epic to say later today how much revenue Google shares with Apple for searches conducted in Safari.
He will be the first witness called today, says Epic attorney Lauren Moskowitz. Right now, Epic and Google are arguing over whether a public blog post written by Pichai should be entered into evidence. Google lead attorney Glenn Pomerantz argues that the blog post, which references the Microsoft antitrust trial of the ’90s, will be a distraction and is irrelevant to today’s case.
Moskowitz claims it’s crucial. I believe they’re referring to this Google blog post. The judge is allowing it for now.
I just saw Google’s CEO enter the Phillip Burton Federal Building and US Courthouse a few minutes ago. He’ll be testifying today.
I could not get a picture or ask a question; while he got waved through the security line, I was a little busy getting my bag and electronics scanned!
We’re not scheduled to start until 9:30AM PT / 12:30PM ET:
Today may be the single biggest day for big-name witnesses; not only is Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropping in on Jury Island but Epic plans to call Hiroshi Lockheimer, too. (Our Epic source didn’t want to be named because it’s not for sure.)
If there’s time, we may even see a prerecorded video from Andy Rubin, the original head of Android.
You’ll want to be here tomorrow: we should be hearing from Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Epic attorney Yonatan Even asked Rosenberg this, and he said it sounded correct. Even also suggested that Epic and Samsung did not need to change the install flow in order to fix the “fake Fortnite” issue. (Presumably, that means it didn’t need to let Google add its Unknown Sources warnings, but I don’t know for certain.)
Even also pointed out Google didn’t implement its iOS-matching 15 percent subscription rev share till January 2018, and Rosenberg said he wasn’t aware of a single developer pulling out of Google Play and focusing efforts on iOS because of that delay.
