Google's court documents make a funny suggestion about the iPhone and the iPad

The iPhone and the iPad could have different default search engines, according to a Google court filing while the company tries to protect its annual $2 billion contract with Apple.

Google's annual payment to Apple that makes Google the default search engine in Safari is likely to be banned by antitrust proceedings. But the search giant is countering with several proposals.

G Google's annual payment to Apple amounts to 20 billion dollars.

If you perform a web search by entering your query into the integrated Safari bar, this search (unless you manually change the default value) will be conducted through Google. This happens because Google pays Apple billions of dollars annually to enjoy this advantage.

This is great news for Google as it receives a significant portion of its search traffic from Apple users and thus has the opportunity to place ads in front of them. Apple customers are also a particularly valuable demographic for advertising agencies, thanks to the fact that they have on average higher incomes.

It's also a great deal for Apple as it's free money. It needs to set a standard and Google is the most well-known search engine, so the company would likely do it regardless of this.

The exact amount has never been disclosed and is kept hidden within Apple's service revenue. But an antitrust proceeding against Google led to the unintentional disclosure of the 2022 payment, which was $2 billion.

The Justice Department argued that this payment was illegal because it gave Google an unfair advantage over a small search engine company and a court agreed in summer. The DOJ asked the judge to ban this payment for a period of ten years.

Google makes a proposal regarding default search engines

As part of the legal proceedings, Google is entitled to file a counterproposal to the Justice Department's message (DOJ) and has now done so.

Google acknowledges that its agreement with Apple will be banned but argues that it should only last for three years instead of ten. It claims that the tech industry moves quickly, especially with the rise of generative AI as a new form of search, which means that the fact that the company dominates the industry today does not necessarily mean it will do so in the future.

The iPhone and the iPad could have different default search engines.

The company proposes that more flexibility other search services would allow for better competition with Google for Apple's business. In a particularly strange proposal, it emphasizes that the iPhone and iPad could have different default search engines, implying that Google would bid against itself and competitors would bid against each other.

Our proposal allows browsers to continue offering Google Search to their users and earn revenue from this collaboration. But it also offers them additional flexibility: It would allow for different default search engines (such as another search engine for iPhones and iPads) and browsing modes, as well as the option to change their default search provider at least once every 12 months.

Although Google currently dominates the search industry, the company has a fundamental reason why its dominance may not last forever. We have already seen that people use services like ChatGPT as an alternative to a traditional search engine, and it is actually difficult to predict what the future will hold.

Before the introduction of the iPhone, Nokia almost had the entire smartphone market. It seemed possible that it could leave the business. But seven years later, the company was actually out of the smartphone market. As secure as Google looks today, its future dominance is not guaranteed.

In theory, it could make sense through the refinement of default search agreements that competitors could bypass a part of the market. But Apple is interested in providing a consistent experience across different devices, so the idea of concluding agreements for different search engines on the iPhone and iPad seems ridiculous.

There may be room for an objection in the court decision, and Google might do well to reduce the proposed ten-year sanction. But it's almost certain that Apple will lose $2 billion per year over the next few years.

Photo by Brandon Romanchuk on Unsplas