Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
Apple receives billions from Google for using Google Search as the default on iPhones, a declaratory filing in the ongoing Google antitrust trial revealed.
Developing a rival search engine would be costly and time-consuming for Apple.
Apple’s privacy focus also clashes with the targeted advertising model of search engines.
Google Search has been prolific in shaping the Internet in the same way that Android shaped the smartphone market. Google managed to leverage both its businesses to grow each other, and that creates an expectation from competitors to follow suit. However, notable competitor Apple prefers to pack in Google Search on iOS instead of working on a rival offering, and we’ve now learned more about the reason behind such a move.
Apple has asked to participate in Google’s upcoming US antitrust trial over online search, as Reuters reports. The company says it cannot rely on Google to defend its revenue-sharing agreements for making Google the default search engine on Safari on iPhones. Apple received an estimated $20 billion from Google in 2022 alone.
As Macrumors spotted in a declaration in the court filingsApple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Mr. Eddy Cue, has explained why Apple does not want to create its own search engine. Developing a search engine would cost billions of dollars and take many years, diverting resources like capital and employees away from the company’s other growth areas. Further, Apple does not have enough specialized professionals and operational infrastructure to build and run a successful search engine business.
The declaration in the court filings explains that search as a business is rapidly evolving due to artificial intelligence, making such an investment economically risky. To create a viable search engine business, Apple would have to “sell targeted advertising,” which is not a core business for the company and would go against 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 continue, Mr. Cue mentions that it would hamstring Apple’s ability to continue delivering products that best serve its users’ needs.
It remains to be seen if the court would allow Apple to participate in the Google antitrust trial and defend the billions of dollars it could potentially earn from future revenue-sharing deals.
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