Why is the Google search engine on Apple hardware and what is the price?

Almost all iPhones and iPads have got used to the fact that their default search engine is Google. How did it happen that Apple's "hostile" product became so well-established in iOS, and why Apple, who claims to care for users' privacy, has not yet abandoned Google?

Apple and Google compete fiercely. And although not everyone thinks iOS is a competitor of Android (I look at you, the European Commission), it is impossible to hide that these are the two hottest and most dynamically developed operating systems in the world.

No wonder Apple invests in its ecosystem, which already consists of many applications. Similarly Google works, which in this field often tries to imitate Apple - for example, he created his response to FaceTime, or the Duo application. Apple, of course, also imitates Google and tries to become independent of its services.

Apple vs. Google Maps

However, there are applications so extensive that it is not easy for Apple to create them from scratch. That's how it was with Google Maps on iOS. By 2012, Google's product was the default application on the Apple mobile system. The manufacturer of iPhones did not have their own maps, and he knew that the location and navigation services are necessary on the smartphone, so already during the premiere of the first iPhone, he reached for Google Maps, which he packed in his own Maps application.

With the update of iOS 6, Apple decided to throw away Google Maps, which replaced Apple Maps. The debut of the Apple Map turned out to be a disaster - the product was very unfinished, the satellite view was often comic, and the overall functionality of maps and navigation was limited.

Despite the fact that Apple was not yet fully ready for its own product, it was decided to terminate cooperation with Google and give customers new Apple Maps - built on the basis of TomTom technology. Why was it done? Apple found that Google collects too much data about users.

Data obtained by the Google Maps application was very detailed and very valuable. With their help, Google could monitor traffic, know where traffic jams and track users' location, which later in anonymized form, eg to external companies.

In addition, Google was to refuse to allow Apple to provide real-time voice navigation (turn-by-turn), which at that time became the proverbial nail for the Google Map coffin on iPhones.

Google has been cut off from users of iPhones who have begun to use Apple Maps. Access to Google Maps for iOS at that time was only possible via a web browser. Only after some time Google Maps has returned to the iPhone as an application released by Google.

Apple vs. Google Search

With Google Search, it's a bit different than with Maps - Apple is well aware that creating an alternative to Google's search engine would not be easy. Do not kid yourself - many have already tried, but it's Google has become synonymous with searching for information on the Internet.

I have recently tried to replace Google with search engines Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo . To those interested in such a comparison, I will suggest: it was not a pleasant experience . Google search in many areas of the world is almost irreplaceable. Competition does not reach her heels. And Apple knows that.

In 2014, for example, search engines that can be set in the Safari mobile search engine DuckDuckGo were added. It is a search engine, about which it became loud when in 2011 it bought a large billboard with the advertising slogan: "Google tracks. We do not. "(Google is following you.) We do not.

Later, in 2015, along with the update of iOS 9, Safari introduced "content locks" that allow users to install adblockers and other tools that block the tracking and care about privacy on the web.

This year, during the premiere of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave Apple released a new version of the Safari browser, which even more takes care of privacy on the web and anonymizes what equipment owners do on the web. According to the assurances of the company, advertisers will no longer be able to obtain data about individual users, to later trade and display specific advertising to specific individuals.

At the same time, Apple maintains its cooperation with Google every year, which consists in setting Google's default search engine on iOS. Apple does it every year, and every year puts Google's hand for money. And Google pays.

The amounts Apple collects are not public, but according to estimates, they can reach over $ 9 billion. annually. Every year this amount increases, and in 2019 it is to exceed USD 12 billion.

Tim Cook explains

On the one hand, you can admire Apple for the fact that he can hug such a sum for the very setting of the search engine in his mobile browser. On the other hand, it is quite morally questionable, because Apple talks every day about the protection of users' privacy and that Apple's competitors act in a bad way because they treat their clients as products - pulling from them a lot of private data, which are later sold to advertisers .

And that's what Tim Cook asked about - why does Apple one-handedly shovels the competition pins and screams loudly into the megaphone about privacy protection, and at the same time accepts billions of dollars for users of Apple devices to use a search engine created by a company that Apple is on the contrary with respect for privacy.

Tim Cook "thinks Google's search engine is the best." He also drew attention to the fact that Apple has taken a number of actions that affect the protection of privacy on the web. The content locks mentioned above, opening up to adblockers and finally blurring the digital fingerprint that makes every user of Apple hardware for the advertiser look the same, according to Tim Cook, are enough.

In my opinion, Apple has gone through a difficult art - ate a cake and have a cake. IPhone users use the best search engine in the world, and Apple made sure that they do not have to worry about what is happening on the internet with their privacy.

Why is the Google search engine on Apple hardware and what is the price?