Apple has intervened to help keep its lucrative deal with Google to be the web default search provider on Apple devices alive, despite threats from competition regulators in the United States.
In court papers filed in Washington DC on Christmas Eve, Apple revealed it has no plan to build its own search engine and would very much like to keep the estimated tens of billions of dollars it earns annually from Google for providing the service.
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In the papers, Apple said it wants to be involved in the antitrust proceedings being levelled against Google by the US department of justice, to defend the pair’s arrangement.
“Google can no longer adequately represent Apple’s interests: Google must now defend against a broad effort to break up its business units,” Apple said (via Reuters)
Within the “motion to intervene” Apple senior vice president of services Eddie Cue declared Apple would not build its own search engine. Cue listed three reasons Apple won’t build a Google Search rival, which has actually been rumoured for years now.
Cue declared:
1) “Apple is focused on other growth areas. The development of a search engine would require diverting both capital investment and employees because creating a search engine would cost billions of dollars and take many years.”
2) “Search is rapidly evolving due to recent and ongoing developments in Artificial Intelligence. That makes it economically risky to devote the huge resources that would be required to create a search engine.”
3) “A viable search engine would require building a platform to sell targeted advertising, which is not a core business of Apple. Apple does not have the volume of specialised professionals and significant operational infrastructure needed to build and run a successful search advertising business. Although Apple does have some niche advertising, such as on the App Store platform, search advertising is different and outside of Apple’s core expertise. Building a search advertising business would also need to be balanced against Apple’s longstanding privacy commitments.”
The US Department of Justice is conducting a wide investigation into how Google’s dominance over the search landscape affects competition in the online marketplace. Google is thought to be offering to loosen its arrangements with browser-makers to satisfy the government, which could threaten its arrangement with Apple.
