Cue happens to be right. Personally, I find myself turning to ChatGPT or Gemini for search, and when it comes to Siri and Google Assistant, I tap on the AI apps even more. But even if Cue is right, that doesn’t mean that Apple wants to lose the Google that laid the Golden Egg. With its search engine the default option on Apple’s 2 million active devices, both Apple and Google have something big to lose depending on the result of this trial.
By trying to persuade the judge that Apple’s future plans call for Safari to replace Google Search with AI, Cue is hoping to prove to the judge that there is no need to break up Google search. Apple also wants the judge to see that Apple does offer other search engines on Safari, including Yahoo Search, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Apple does take a portion of the search revenue that these search engines generate from Safari, but nowhere near the amount of money that it receives from Google.
What Cue didn’t mention in court is that Apple and Google are on the verge of announcing an AI partnership revolving around Gemini. In fact, when you ask a question of Google search on the iPhone, iPad, or the Mac, you often get an answer from AI first. He did admit during testimony to losing sleep over the possibility of his services unit losing Google’s big check. He did tell the judge that Google should remain the default search option, and while other search engines will be added, Cue says that they probably won’t be the default choice for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.
One possibility that Apple might be forced to consider is dropping all exclusive deals, including Google’s, and working out partnerships with as many search providers as possible. If Apple can take a slice of each search provider’s revenue, it might be able to equal the current deal it has with Google at the worst, or generate even more revenue in the best case scenario.
