Thread by @leah_nylen

Stanford's Susan Athey is back on the stand for #epicvapple this AM being cross examined by Apple's Karen Dunn.

Dunn is asking Athey a bunch of questions about Steam's apps, like Steam Chat, a messenger app. techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/val…

Athey says she's used Steam but not Steam Chat or Steam Link, an app that lets you stream Steam from your PC to your mobile device or TV en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link

Even tried to object, but YGR said Athey is "a professor at Stanford" and can push back on questioning on her own. "There's nothing objectionable going on. This is cross"

Dunn is asking Athey about Game Club, a subscription service for mobile games. gameclub.io

Both Apple Arcade and Game Club require users to download each game they want to play. Athey testified that causes "additional friction" for users, but acknowledged that she didn't measure that specifically

Dunn is apparently demonstrating for the court how it works to go into Game Club, click on a game and then it goes to the App Store to have the user download it.

Dunn lists all the information that the App Store link gives about a game such as the recommended age, how large the download is and a link to the developer's website. "This kind of information would be valuable to consumers," Athey says.

Dunn has asked Athey a number of questions about "interoperability." “I don’t know what the point of this is, Ms. Dunn,” the judge says.

"What Epic is asking for in this case is for Apple to make its products interoperable," Dunn says.

"My opinion, which I tried to state clearly, was about restrictions on middleware. Removing those restrictions would, in my opinion, would be beneficial for developers and consumers," Athey says. Dunn then ends her cross.

Epic's Yonatan Even is now questioning again and his voice is not picked up well on the audio line.

They've gone back to discussion about Game Club. Athey says that Game Club was rejected more than 100 times before it got into the App Store.

Even asked Athey about her work for Microsoft. Athey said she was employed by Microsoft Research in 2008 and 2011-2012 and has scaled back her work for them starting in 2015.

Are you presently engaged by Microsoft on an antitrust issue?
Athey: No.

Has anyone at Microsoft asked you about this case?
Athey: No.

Does your engagement by Epic have anything to do with Microsoft?
Athey: Not as far as I know.

Even asks whether any technical redesign would be required for game streaming apps on Apple. Athey said based on her understanding of Microsoft and Nvidia's services, there would not need to be and that Nvidia's app was originally accepted by Apple and then taken down.

And Athey is done.