from Hacker News

Apple should end their Google search partnership (2023)

by happybuy on 5/6/24, 10:13 PM with 30 comments

  • by CharlesW on 5/7/24, 4:31 AM

    I thought it was universally understood that Apple has been working toward ending its dependency on Google Search for about a decade.

    One can witness the firepower of Apple's fully armed and operational search engine today, which is hidden in plain sight: https://imgur.com/a/SThluBm.

    That said, Apple should not end its Google Search partnership until one of the following occurs: (1) it's strategically important for Apple to provide Safari's default search engine, (2) a government mandates that Google can no longer pay (or pay Apple) for the privilege of being Safari's default search engine, or (3) people stop preferring Google search by a wide margin.

    (1) Making Apple Search the default for Safari would cost Apple $20 million per year, but could open up a bunch of new revenue streams and potentially provide a much better search experience for Apple users (especially if Apple's GPT partner isn't Google).

    (2) If the EU mandates that Google can no longer pay-to-play in general, or can't do so with Apple in particular, no problem. Users will choose their search engine on a platform where Apple has a home-field advantage.

    (3) In the extremely unlikely event that Google goes from hero to zero in search, boom — Apple Search is ready.

    In summary, this is a terrible time for Apple to stop taking Google's money. They should wait until the GenAI players settle down, until the advertising part of the business matures and can capitalize on the change, and until governments stop looking for limbs to chop off.

  • by ofrzeta on 5/7/24, 4:41 AM

    "Apple Maps, launched in 2012, initially faced several hiccups and criticisms, but today, it arguably matches or exceeds Google Maps in many areas." - not in my experience.

    Also, concerning the "partnership", it is impossible to configure Google Maps on iOS as a default map handling application. Due to EU legislation Apple must change this (in the EU only) but this is supposed to happen in iOS 18 or something (in 2025).

  • by creato on 5/7/24, 4:47 AM

    What is the alternative here? The default search position is very valuable. If Google didn't pay for it, someone else would. Should Apple auction it off but disallow Google from winning it? That seems maybe OK I guess?

    Should Apple take it for itself and build a search engine? Ironically, this seems like it would make Apple guilty of exactly what many antitrust arguments decry at the moment: a company leveraging its position in one area to give itself a boost in another.

  • by nojvek on 5/7/24, 9:42 PM

    Apple should but under Tim Cook, Apple could?

    I feel Tim Cook is going down the same rabbit hole as Steve Ballmer, chasing ways to juice the iPhone/iOS cash cow. And now with dividends, it's an aim at spiking the stock price while revenue isn't growing much.

    A $15B dip on Apple's earnings would shock their price. Apple seems to have fallen into the trap of chasing quarterly earnings while sacrificing their long term growth.

  • by add-sub-mul-div on 5/7/24, 3:25 AM

    They found a way to launder the sale of their users' data through this deal so they can make billions and most people don't even realize they've been sold. I doubt they'll just give it up.

  • by pipeline_peak on 5/7/24, 5:15 AM

    I keep hearing Raspberry Pi guy’s complain about how Google Search is “dying”, but I don’t see regular people using anything else.

  • by cushpush on 5/7/24, 12:25 PM

    Survival of the Fattest

  • by happybuy on 5/6/24, 10:16 PM

    Last week, as part of the US Department of Justice investigation, documents were released that showed Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to retain the search partnership.

    This is almost 20% of Apple’s total operating profit for the year.

    It’s never a good idea for a company to be so reliant on a single partnership or client.

    It distorts incentives, is high risk and sometimes, as in Apple’s case leaves a company blind to other opportunities it could be pursuing.

    On top of it all, Apple’s search partnership with Google trades their customer’s privacy for search $ kickbacks.

    Based upon all this, it should be time for Apple to end this partnership and pursue their own search solution.