Apple recently chose to speak on behalf of Google – one of its main rivals – in the penalty phase of anantitrust casebrought by the USDepartment of Justice. That might seem strange at first, until you realize that, in 2022 alone, Google paid Apple roughly $20 billion to remain the default search engine inSafari, the web browser preloaded oniPhones, iPads, and Macs. It wants to keep that cash flowing, regardless of whether it’s fair to competing search engines like DuckDuckGo.
Interestingly, Apple’s intervention included a spiel from Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, on why the company wouldn’t build a competing search engine of its own. I’m in total agreement that Apple shouldn’t dip its toes into that pond – but not so much for the reasons Cue suggests.
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Why Apple says it’s not building a search engine
The business case
Cue hasthree main points, all based on the financial outlook. The first is that building a search engine would be expensive and time-consuming, which makes sense – search advertising is Google’s main source of revenue, backed by global offices and data centers. Its parent company, Alphabet, is worth over $2.3 trillion. Apple would have to spend years and many billions of dollars just to compete. There would be no guarantee of success – Safari may be preloaded on Apple devices, but Google is available everywhere, and pretty firmly entrenched.
Apple would have to spend years and many billions of dollars just to compete.
Cue points to the rapid development ofgenerative AIas making search even more costly and “economically risky.” Apple is late to the game, sinceApple Intelligenceonly launched in October 2024, and then with just a handful of features, like notification summaries and writing tools. It’s hard to imagine Apple playing catch-up with Google, which is already delivering AI summaries when you search for topics ranging from the population of Austin to the siege of Constantinople.
The last claim is that Apple doesn’t have the “volume of specialized professionals and significant operational infrastructure” that would be needed for search advertising, and it would have to weigh that against its privacy commitments. Indeed, Apple tried to enter the advertising world many years ago with iAd, but its terms were unpopular. Now, the only search ads it handles are the sort you find on Apple News or the App Store.
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Why Apple really shouldn’t build a search engine
The unspoken facts
Let’s clear one thing up: cost and labor aren’t the problems Cue claims they are. Yes, a search engine would be an enormous undertaking, but Apple only recentlykilled off Project Titan, a decade-long effort to develop a self-driving Apple Car. It cost billions of dollars and employed thousands of people, many of them lured from outside firms like Tesla.
Apple has the resources to make just about anything happen when it wants to.
I think the real issue, bluntly, is that Apple probably wouldn’t be good at it. The company has talented engineers, and can afford to poach as much new talent as it needs, but anyone who’s used Siri can attest that it’s fundamentally worse than ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and even Amazon Alexa at answering knowledge questions. Apple is aware of this, so Apple Intelligence automatically forwards more complex Siri requests to ChatGPT. That doesn’t bode well for a search engine, which would have to deliver practical results all day, every day, for any hope of drawing people away from Google.
I think the real issue, bluntly, is that Apple probably wouldn’t be good at it.
Apple’s strict privacy policies would inevitably interfere. Without access to the same kinds of data pools and training sources as Google, Apple would be operating with an arm tied behind its back. There might be workarounds, but people will always flock to the engine that delivers the best output. Money isn’t the only reason Apple is willing to partner with Google on Safari.
If Apple was somehow successful with a search engine, it might steer the company down a dark path. Search advertising is lucrative – it’s how Alphabet can afford to run Calico Labs, a research firm devoted entirely to immortality. Apple would naturally start skewing its products to drive search traffic, regardless of whether that makes for an ideal user experience. It might even decide to compromise its privacy policies, given that advertisers are always chasing narrow demographics. They don’t want to know if you’re an American iPhone owner – they want to know if you’re an Orlando iPhone owner aged 25 to 34 who’s really into EDM and wicker furniture. Apple would easily attract more advertisers if it was looser about sharing your browsing habits.
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A search engine isn’t out of the question
AsBloombergnotes, Apple has explored the idea of a search engine in the past. That implies some evidence behind Cue’s positions, but undermines their thrust, which is that Apple just doesn’t have an interest. Well, it does, but it simply doesn’t see a way of making search profitable, at least not yet.
Apple could always change its mind a few years from now, especially if the Justice Department loosens Google’s grip.
Apple could always change its mind a few years from now, especially if the Justice Department loosens Google’s grip on the industry. Indeed, Apple is often at its best when it’s late to a party. Smartphones existed for years before the iPhone, and smartwatches existed for years before the Apple Watch. Under the right circumstances, an Apple search engine could swoop in and take over.
I still doubt that an Apple search engine will happen, but only because the company is showing more interest in other areas, such as health, robotics, and smart home tech. It may have tens of billions of dollars to throw around, but that’s a lot to commit to on top of its existing product lines.
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