Matti Robinson
28 Oct 2020 14:18
As you might have noticed in the years that have passed, Apple is trying to create an all-encompassing ecosystem of both hardware and software.
One of the major milestones for the hardware have been getting chip production in-house, which means less dependency on companies like Intel. In terms of software, the latest expansions include Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade among others.
Now, according to Financial Times, Apple is developing a search engine to replace Google. This seems like an odd choice for a company like Apple, but it turns out it's more about necessity than what they'd like to do.
See, The US Department of Justice might soon make it impossible for Apple to sell their default search engine spot to Google. The deal is an important part of Apple's service structure and nets the company each year as much as $12 billion.
Now that the contract might become void, Apple is speeding up the development of some sort of a replacement for Google.
At this point it's unclear what type of solution Apple is looking at. Although Applebot has been roaming the web for years collecting website data, it's unlikely that Apple will take Google's approach.
Google obviously makes most of its money from ads on its search engine. That is something quite opposite to Apple values of privacy. Neither Apple, nor the customers, would accept selling of data to advertisers, one would imagine.
It remains to be seen whether Apple has some type of search engine to offer as soon as it cannot sell the spot, and perhaps more important what will it look like.