The company is betting on new search technologies

Apple is trying to maintain its lucrative partnership with Google, but is already thinking about the future without the deal. The company’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, said that search technology is changing and the iPhone may lose its relevance in a decade. This happened at a hearing in the antitrust case against Google in the US, where a $20 billion settlement is being discussed. According to it, Google remains the default search engine on Apple devices.

Cue noted that users are increasingly choosing artificial intelligence (AI) over traditional search. For example, in April, the number of Google searches on Apple devices decreased for the first time. The company plans to rebuild the Safari browser by integrating AI services such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. These platforms could become alternatives to Google, although for now Google remains a preferred partner. Apple also cooperates with other search engines, but their contribution to the company’s revenue is smaller.

The Google deal brings in a significant chunk of Apple’s services revenue, which hit a record $26.6 billion in March. But if a court finds the Google deal anticompetitive, Apple risks losing that revenue. Cue acknowledged that such an outcome worries him, but stressed that new AI technologies offer opportunities. Apple, for example, already uses ChatGPT in Siri and plans to add Google Gemini.

Source: Bloomberg

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