The iPhone maker wants to get rid of the world's most widely used web browser and develop its own to avoid potential legal problems.
According to the
Financial Times
, Apple has recently implemented small changes to its devices to rely less on Google, the beginning of a process that could culminate in the removal of the search engine from its phones.
In recent days, the idea has gained traction thanks to the antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice against Google, which may completely disrupt the relationship between Apple and Google.
The North American country accuses the search engine of dominating the market and expelling other possible competing web engines by paying billions to device manufacturers to incorporate Google without having to install it.
The most notorious case is that of Apple, to whom it pays up to 8,000 million dollars a year, according to Bloomberg, to be its web search engine on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
In September, Apple mobiles released a new operating system, iOS14, and with it the company has begun to display its own search results and link directly to websites when users type queries from their home screen, without going through Google .
Although the antitrust lawsuit against the search engine is expected to be delayed for years, the US government could force Google to break its exclusivity agreement on Apple, forcing the Silicon Valley mobile manufacturer to look for another alternative.
Expanding and developing your own search engine “would be the natural thing to do,” says Sridhar Ramaswamy in the business newspaper.
“Apple's position is very unique because it has the iPhone and the iOS.
Control the default browser ”.
In addition, it would be a logical step according to the history of the company, which has always tried to develop and control the most important components of its products, from the custom chips of iPhones and their AirPods and Watch accessories, to the tight integration of the
software.
and
hardware
that they have built for years on all their devices.
Apple already began this transformative process of its search engine two and a half years ago, when it hired Google's head of search, John Giannandrea, supposedly to increase its artificial intelligence capabilities and its virtual assistant Siri, but who also brought eight years of experience in running the world's most popular search engine.
Apple's job postings, seeking developers to "define and implement a revolutionary search architecture for Apple," are also unmistakable.
"They [Apple] have a credible team that I think has the experience and depth, if they wanted to, to build a more general search engine,"
Bill Coughran, Google's former head of engineering, told
the
Financial Times
that now is a Silicon Valley Investor Partner Sequoia Capital.
