Apple clashes with Amazon in e-book case

Apple attorneys in the US antitrust case on e-books went on the offensive on Thursday, attacking the credibility of government witnesses and seeking to debunk key elements of the government's case.

Apple attorneys in the US antitrust case on e-books went on the offensive on Thursday, attacking the credibility of government witnesses and seeking to debunk key elements of the government's case.

Apple attorneys grilled a trio of witnesses from Apple rival Amazon.

Apple attorney Howard Heiss peppered Amazon executives during a series of contentious exchanges with skeptical questions on Amazon statements about its business profile and pointed out inconsistencies between Amazon testimony and documentary evidence.

Amazon is very 'metrics-focused,' Heiss said to Amazon's vice president for Kindle Russell Grandinetti. He had previously testified that he did not know Amazon's market share of the e-books market.

Heiss then presented a news article quoting another Amazon executive estimating the company's market share at 70-80%.

Amazon is a key witness in the government's case, which maintains that Apple conspired with publishers to orchestrate a transformation of the e-book market in early 2010 that cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.