In addition to its own web browser, Apple might launch a custom web search engine as well. AR evangelist Robert Scoble claims that the Cupertino tech giant will introduce a new “user-centric” web search engine like Google’s by next year.
A web search engine allows users to search the world wide web in a systematic way for information. Google, Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo, Bing and Ask are some of the top 12 best search engines. Since Apple does not have its own web search engine, it has been in partnership with Google to offer Google as the default web search engine on iOS, iPad, and macOS devices for the past 16 years.
Would Apple risk losing $15 billion in annual profits by creating its own web search engine?
While speculating on what to expect at the upcoming WWDC 2022 event in his Twitter thread, Scoble also chimed in about a search engine that might come with Siri support. Although he did not provide any other details on Twitter, he told TechRadar Pro that his claim is partially based on information obtained from sources and partially on deduction.
Oh, and a new search engine is coming too. Will Siri finally get "smart?" Hmmm.
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) May 28, 2022
Apple already offers competing services to Google; Safari web browser, Apple Maps, Photos, Siri, iMessage, Mail, iCloud, Google Pay, and more. So, the idea of a custom web search engine is not far-fetched.
However, the Cupertino tech giant makes billions of dollars in profit annually by keeping Google the default search web engine on its devices. Bernstein analyst, Toni Sacconaghi forecasted that Google’s payment to Apple in FY 2021 would be $15 billion to stay the default search engine on iOS. The analyst based his forecast on Apple’s public filings and analysis of Google’s TAC (traffic acquisition costs) payments.
Google is by far the popular most web search tool amongst consumers. Recently, it was reported that Safari has achieved the one billion user mark but it is nowhere close to Google Chrome which has over three billion users.
We believe that by the tech giant might not offer its own web search engine because it would entail the loss of billions of dollars in revenue.
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