Epic v. Google: everything we learned in Fortnite court
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Sameer Samat, VP of Android product management, and his colleagues, were very surprised to see that Samsung managed to get Fortnite on its phones via its Galaxy Store — without triggering the many-step Unknown Sources (US) prompt that, Epic argues and Google has internally conceded, creates so much friction that many users won’t bother.
Here is a message Google sent to Samsung afterwards:
Someone on our side was just able to fully download Fortnite on Note 8 with no unknown sources. We really need to understand what’s going on (and I think DJ should, too.) Very concerned. Also surprised that it’s on Note 8 given what you said about Note 9 and Tab S4 only.
Epic attorney Yonatan Even is accusing Google of having a handshake deal with Samsung not to compete too much. He points to how Google invokes the name of Samsung mobile president DJ Koh — and how Samsung quickly responds that “It was done by the Service team without my knowledge. I am looking into it now.”
“I wouldn’t characterize it as a handshake deal,” says Google former Play head Jamie Rosenberg.
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