Google asked Apple in 2018 to install the Search app as standard on iOS
Google CEO Sundar Pichai pitched a plan to Apple in 2018 to include the Google Search app as standard on every iOS device. This is evident from information from the American competition lawsuit against Google’s search engine. Apple rejected the idea.
At the end of 2018, Sundar Pichai shared the idea with Apple to include Google Search as standard with iOS. This was evident from internal emails that emerged during the Google CEO hearing, reports The Verge. The CEO proposed a ‘deep collaboration’ between the two companies. It is unknown what that default app would have looked like.
The Google CEO made the proposal as part of Google’s search agreement with Apple, which makes Search the default search engine of the Safari web browser. Google pays billions a year for this. Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook meet once a year to discuss the search deal, according to the Google CEO. In 2018, Apple reportedly raised concerns about declining revenue growth from the revenue deal. The total turnover from Google Search is said to have grown ‘much faster’ than the turnover that Apple achieved from the collaboration.
When the two companies discussed how to “encourage” searches under the agreement, the Google CEO reportedly suggested preinstalling Google Search on all iOS devices. With more searches via Google Search, Apple would have received more revenue from the agreement. Google would have offered to maintain that built-in app for twenty years. Apple did not accept that offer. The company rarely provides third-party software in its OS, The Verge also notes. The company previously had YouTube and Google Maps apps in iOS, but they were developed by Apple itself and were removed from the mobile operating system more than ten years ago.
Pichai said in a response to the emails that he was trying to find ways to give everyone what he wanted, The Verge reports. “We said one of the things that works well on Android, which drives more usage, is a Google search application. So I proposed that we build a Google search application for iOS and support the product for years to come.”
The search deal between Apple and Google is one of the key pieces in the ongoing lawsuit against Google. The US Department of Justice states that Google maintains an illegal and anti-competitive monopoly with its search engine. The company would pay platform holders a lot of money to be the default search engine, thus hindering smaller competitors. Google itself states that its search engine has become the largest because it is ‘the best’.