For this reason, Apple will not make its own Google Search a rival

Typing Apple Visual Intelligence vs. Google Lens in chatgpt

Ryan Haines/Android Authority

TL;DR

Apple will receive billions from Google for using Google Search by default on iPhones, according to a declaratory judgment lawsuit in the ongoing Google antitrust case.
Developing a competing search engine would be costly and time-consuming for Apple.
Apple’s focus on privacy also clashes with search engines’ targeted advertising model.

Google Search has shaped the internet in the same way Android shaped the smartphone market. Google has managed to use both businesses to grow each other, and this creates expectations among competitors to follow suit. However, big-name rival Apple prefers to integrate Google Search on iOS rather than work on a competing offering, and we’ve now learned more about the reason behind such a move.

Apple has asked to take part in Google’s upcoming US antitrust case over online search Reuters Reports. The company says it cannot rely on Google to defend its revenue-sharing agreements, which made Google the default search engine for Safari on iPhones. In 2022 alone, Apple received an estimated $20 billion from Google.

As Macromors Mr. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, explained in a statement in court filings why Apple doesn’t want to create its own search engine. Developing a search engine would cost billions of dollars and take many years, diverting resources such as capital and employees from the company’s other growth areas. Additionally, Apple does not have enough talent and operational infrastructure to build and operate a successful search engine business.

The statement in the court filing said search as a business is evolving rapidly due to artificial intelligence, making such an investment economically risky. To build a profitable search engine business, Apple would have to “sell targeted advertising,” which is not a core business for the company and would contradict its longstanding privacy commitments.

Mr Cue is asking the US court to allow Apple to defend its revenue-sharing agreement with Google by having its own witnesses testify during the trial. If the agreement can no longer be maintained, Cue said it would impact Apple’s ability to continue delivering products that best meet the needs of its users.

It remains to be seen whether the court would allow Apple to participate in the antitrust case against Google and defend the billions of dollars the company could potentially earn from future revenue-sharing deals.

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