Two of the world’s biggest tech giants – Apple and Google – are coming together in what is increasingly looking like an uncertain affair. Billions and trillions are at stake and the world’s ‘default’ search engine Google is staring into the abyss.
There is a lot to lose for both tech giants – for Apple it could lead to losses of tens of billions of dollars per year and have an incomprehensible impact on the accuracy of its results on features like Siri and Spotlight, which are outlined To a large extent dependent on Google search. , For Google, in addition to money and market share, this could result in huge losses for its entire web browser – Chrome. It also faces another potentially huge disadvantage – its Android operating system.
And so, finding Google in big trouble, Apple has sought to participate in the anti-trust trial against Google over its Internet search engine. Apple said on Tuesday it needed to step in because it could no longer rely on Google alone to protect revenue-sharing agreements between the two companies.
The center of the case, which has sent shock waves through Silicon Valley, is an agreement between Google and Apple in which the iPhone, iPad and Macbook maker gets billions of dollars each year to make Google the default search engine on its browsers. – Safari. In 2022 alone, Apple will reportedly receive more than $20 billion as a result of this deal.
At the heart of the matter the question is simple – has Google monopolized online search? According to Google- No, this has not happened.
In simple business terms monopoly is a situation where a single company controls the entire market. In such a scenario, it becomes difficult or sometimes impossible to compete due to lack of level playing field.
Focusing on this very point, Apple’s lawyers submitted their papers to the court on Tuesday, in which they explained that Apple and Google are not competitors, and neither does Apple want to compete in the search engine field. It also said that whether Apple gets billions of dollars from Google in the future or not, it will be like this.
Apple also said in its petition that it intends to call witnesses who will testify under oath in the trial scheduled for April 2025. On that day, prosecutors will aim to highlight a number of measures Google should definitely take — two of them being selling its Chrome browser and possibly even its Android operating system. Prosecutors believe that only then can competition be restored in online search. But if this happens then it will be a fatal blow for Google.
While Google’s parent company Alphabet is looking for a way to fight this serious threat to its existence, Apple, which understands the seriousness of the situation, has stated that “Google can no longer adequately represent Apple’s interests Google now has to defend against a broader effort to separate its business units.”
Meanwhile, Google has proposed that the focus of the case should be on exclusive deals, rather than breaking up Google – and that should be the focus of this case. It has even offered to end its exclusive deals, including with Apple.
Justifying its stance, Google has said that the entire premise of the case is based on exclusive deals. In addition to ending the agreement with Apple, Google has also suggested that it is no longer willing to make a deal with Android phone makers, which would require phone makers to provide Google with its operating system and supporting apps by default. There is a need to create a search engine. Browser companies like Mozilla will be given more flexibility in setting rival search engines as their default search. According to Google’s lawyers, this is a reasonable solution to make the market more competitive.
Between now and the crucial hearing in April, Google is doing everything it can to defend itself and limit its losses – and the consequences if it loses this unprecedented case. Will have to.
US Department of Justice v. Google is poised to become a defining moment for the global tech industry – a landmark case that could reshape the way the world uses the Internet. If someone searches “what will happen next in the Google vs. DOJ case”, Google will probably also just say ‘Search me!’
