Apple’s Eddy Cue Reveals Reasons Why Company Won’t Develop Search Engine

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue revealed why the company isn’t keen to develop its own search engine to compete with Google. This information came out this week as Google meets with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to defend itself against antitrust claims within the search business.

As first seen by Reuters, new court filings have emerged, where Cue has gone on record to discuss Apple’s hesitation in developing its own search engine. This is because Apple’s $20 billion search engine deal with Google has been under the microscope.

During the court proceedings, Cue stated that the DOJ’s proposal to break Google’s businesses apart to mitigate antitrust concerns wouldn’t result in Apple stepping in. Cue outlines that the company will not “develop its own search engine or enter the Search Text Ad market.” He claims that any assumption that Apple wants to compete with Google within this market “is wrong.”

Part of the reason Apple isn’t developing its own search engine, as Cue says, is that it’s not a focus. Instead, Apple is focused on other growth areas outside of search. As Cue explains, developing a competitive search engine would require capital investment and employees. The investment would cost upwards of a few billion dollars and take years to complete.

Cue goes on to explain that the search engine market is changing at a rapid and unpredictable rate. He believes that it’s an economic risk to invest resources into developing its own search while developments in AI are evolving the space.

Finally, Cue also outlines that building a functional and profitable search engine requires extensive advertisement targeting. This is not a core business of Apple as Cue emphasizes. To compete with Google, Apple would need to integrate specialized advertisement professionals and build an infrastructure in order to be able to successfully replicate the targeting process Google has built into its search.

Apple has asked “to participate in Google’s upcoming U.S. antitrust trial over online search,” according to earlier reports. During a filing, Apple stated, “Google can no longer adequately represent Apple’s interests: Google must now defend against a broad effort to break up its business units.”