Apple and Google compete, no one denies that, but there are certain market sectors that both respect from their opponent. In the case of Google, it is not going to enter, for the moment, to confront the Apple Vision Pro. On the other hand, those from Cupertino never, it seems, are going to launch your own search engine servicethat competes with that of the Great G.
In the end, many would see it as logical that one of the largest companies in the world, as other firms such as Microsoft with Bingwill launch its own search engine. However, the company has made it clear that it has no plans to compete directly with Google in this terrain. And his reasons seem quite logical.
A multi-million dollar deal between billion-dollar brands
Above what separates them, we must analyze what unites them. For years now, Google pays Apple astronomical sums to be the default search engine on the company’s devices, that is, both the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac. In fact, in the last year, Apple has added nearly 20,000 to its revenue. million dollars, from Google.
This agreement is not only profitable for Apple, but also offers its users what the company considers “the best search experience available.” And be careful, it is not us who say it, but these are the statements made in 2022 by Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. For the executive, Google is simply the best search engine on the marketand offering it as the default directly benefits Apple customers, who, if they are not satisfied, can set other search engines on their iPhone such as Yahoo, Bing or DuckDuckGo.
Developing a search engine is not exactly cheap
Today we are not able to perceive the work behind a search engine like Googleno matter how much we are all subject to their algorithms and data analysis systems. Therefore, creating a new search engine from scratch would be a titanic task for Apple. We are no longer just talking about the billions of dollars and the need to recruit a team highly specialized in artificial intelligence, data indexing and digital advertising, which would be needed to create it, but about the money that would be needed to maintain it, taking into account that Google has decades of advantage.
Furthermore, the search engine business is constantly evolving, especially with the integration of artificial intelligence technologies such as natural language models. According to the documents presented by Apple in the different antitrust trials it has had against Google, this volatile panorama would make a investing in a search engine was riskier to launch, for example, foldable uni Phone. And if the brand has been characterized by something in recent years, it is by innovating quite little.
In one of the antitrust lawsuits that Google faces in the United Statesthe authorities allege that this agreement between brands nullifies competition in the search engine market. However, Apple has argued that its choice of Google as the default search engine is based on the quality of the product and not with the intention of harming competitors.
We could also take into account that Apple maintains a firm commitment to user privacy, and for a search engine to be profitable, it generally needs to implement targeted advertising based on user data, something Apple has historically avoided.
For this reason, and many others, maintaining the agreement with Google allows Apple to focus on areas that really drive its growth without dispersing efforts in an extremely competitive market.
