<iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PHTV9K7" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">
Loading
Skip to Main Content
Product cover image for App-Solute Power Play: Apple’s Epic Challenge

App-Solute Power Play: Apple’s Epic Challenge

Malay Krishna, Tulsi Jayakumar, Rohit Prabhudesai,

Product #:W47496
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:Economics & Public Policy, Strategy
Setting:United States, 2025
Details:Case (PDF) • 9 pages • 2026-03-05

Subjects:

StrategyEconomics

Industries:

Information technology and telecom sector

Geography:

United StatesNorth America
Your Price:$9.71

Purchase this material with a free Educator Account and enjoy more benefits:

  • Free Educator Copy
  • Free Teaching Notes
  • Build your coursepack
  • Discounted academic price

Apple Inc. charged a 30 per cent commission on sales of apps hosted on its App Store, as well as on any in-app purchases consumers made. But in 2025, a court ruled in favour of Epic Games Inc. (Epic), a major publisher of video games (such as Fortnite), and against Apple. The ruling stated that app developers should be allowed to direct consumers to make in-app purchases outside of Apple’s App Store, which would mean lower commission revenue for Apple. While Apple appealed the court ruling, it needed to find new ways to retain and grow revenues from its App Store. Carson Oliver—head of the App Store division at Apple—had to determine how the company should respond to the setback. Could the answer lie in making changes to its pricing policy? Or should Apple provide more value-added services to developers that might make them more willing to pay the higher commission rate? As more developers may follow Epic with their own lawsuits, putting billions of commission fees at risk, Oliver needed options sooner rather than later.

Learning Objectives

This case is suitable for use senior undergraduate and postgraduate-level courses on business strategy, where it can be positioned as an illustration of coopetition: how a partner can present both an opportunity (to co-operate and co-create value) and a threat (to appropriate the created value). After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:
  • Understand how complementors (companies that produce complementary offerings to a product) can not only add value to a company but also threaten to capture the value that company creates.
  • Assess a range of strategies to counter the threat posed by complementors.
  • Evaluate the likely impact of these mitigating strategies on the business under threat.
Loading
Case Study: App-Solute Power Play: Apple’s Epic Challenge (English version) | Ivey Publishing