A few years ago, it was reported that Apple was ramping up efforts to build its search engine alternative to rival Google, but when the latter was paying the Cupertino giant ludicrous sums of money to the tune of $20 billion in 2022 to keep its own search engine as default on a multitude of devices, those efforts likely dialed down. While we can go back and forth on why Apple does not develop its own search engine, a company executive has highlighted various reasons why it has zero plans to do so. Despite having heaps of cash to work with and burn through, other hindrances prevent the development of a Google-like search engine.
Other reasons for Apple not wanting to build a search engine is that the plan will go against its core business, which is selling targeted advertising
A declaration filed with the U.S. federal court in Washington that was spotted by MacRumors reveals Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, talking about why the California-based behemoth has no plans to create a search engine to take on Google. Firstly, even with the billions of dollars required to develop something from scratch, the time needed to make the search engine fully operational would take years, which the company can divert toward other meaningful ventures.
Additionally, creating a search engine is ‘economically risky’ for Apple because the business continues to evolve by leveraging artificial intelligence. Given that the firm is already late in delivering generative AI features to the masses, Apple has already lost the race to other competitors. Assuming the aforementioned reasons were the least of Apple’s worries, with the completion of the search engine, the company would have to enable targeted advertising, which goes against the core business on which Apple was built upon.
Also, despite the near-limitless funds that Apple possesses, there is a shortage of talent required to make a search engine from scratch, meaning that it will be pointless to continue injecting billions of dollars if there is little progress from the venture. Earlier, we reported that Microsoft attempted to sell its Bing search engine to Apple on six occasions, but the offers were rejected due to the poor search quality compared to Google’s product.
Eddy Cue has also said that there is no alternative to Google, which is why it continues to accept billions in payments to keep the Mountain View firm’s search engine as the default. However, if the U.S. DOJ decides to sever this partnership, Cue states it could ‘hamstring’ Apple’s ability to continue delivering products that best serve its users’ needs.
