Apple is taking steps to separate its mobile operating system from the features offered by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, by developing its own maps, search and ad systems that have brought the two tech giants into collision.
The two Silicon Valley giants have been competing in the smartphone market since Google acquired the Android operating system and released it in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs described the Android operating system as a “stolen product” that mimics Apple’s mobile operating system iOS, after which he declared war on Google, leading to the ouster of the search company’s then CEO. Eric Schmidt of Apple’s board of directors in 2009, according to the Financial Times, and Al Arabiya.net reviewed it.
Although the rivalry has since become less vocal, two former Apple engineers have said the iPhone maker has a “grid” against Google.
And the Financial Times reported that one of those people said that Apple is still waging a “quiet war” against its archrival, and is doing so by developing features that could allow iPhone makers to separate their products from their services. through Google”.
Cards
Leading the way in this battle is Maps software, which began in 2012 when Apple released Maps, replacing rival Google as the preloaded app.
The move was supposed to be a highlight for Apple’s software prowess, but the launch was full of bugs.
The company’s chief executive, Tim Cook, said he was “very sorry about the disappointment this has caused to the company’s customers.”
However, Apple Maps has improved a lot over the past decade.
And earlier this month, it announced Business Connect, a feature that allows businesses to claim their digital location so they can interact with users, display photos, and offer promotions.
This is a direct challenge to Google Maps, which has partnered with recommendation platform Yelp to provide similar information and generate revenue from ad fees and referrals.
Business Connect goes even further, using the Apple operating system to provide iOS users with unique features such as seamless integration with Apple Pay or Business Chat, a text chat tool for commerce.
Search
The second front in the battle is search. While Apple rarely discusses products during development, the company has long been working on a feature known internally as Apple Search, a tool that project staff say facilitates “billions of searches” a day.
The Apple Search team was founded at least in 2013 when it acquired Topsy Labs, a startup that indexed Twitter to provide search and analytics.
This technology is used every time an iPhone user requests information from Siri, enters queries on the home screen, or uses Spotlight search on a Mac.
Apple’s search offering was bolstered by its 2019 purchase of Laserlike, an artificial intelligence startup founded by former Google engineers who described their mission as providing “high-quality information and diverse perspectives on any topic from across the web.”
Apple could quickly capture Google’s 92 percent share of the search market if it doesn’t make Google the default service for its 1.2 billion iPhone users, said Josh Koenig, director of strategy for Pantheon, the website operating platform.
But the problem remains, as does the cost of the move, as Alphabet pays Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion annually in exchange for keeping Google the default search engine on iOS, according to the US Department of Justice. .
Still, replacing Google with the iPhone and reassuring users that their online requests won’t be passed on to third-party data brokers would play well with Apple’s privacy-focused software changes and marketing campaign – and could be a huge hit. for Apple business. Google”.
Since the launch of a new privacy policy in April 2021, Apple has banned companies like Facebook and Snap from easily creating user profiles and tracking their activities from one app to another, so the information about the distribution of user income in these companies has collapsed by 58%, and 84 % respectively.
ads
The third front in Apple’s battle may be the most devastating: its online advertising ambitions, where Alphabet generates more than 80% of its revenue.
Apple posted an ad on its job pages last summer that it was looking for someone to “develop the most advanced and most proprietary application platform known as DSP.”
DSP is a digital media buying tool that allows advertisers to purchase ad inventory across multiple exchanges.
The job posting indicated Apple’s desire to create a new ad network that would change the way ads are delivered to iPhone users and keep third-party data brokers out of the loop.
The position was filled in September by Keith Weisberg as Product Manager for the Ad Platform Group.
Weisberg, who also spent ten years at Google and YouTube, was a senior product manager at Amazon DSP.
Inside Intelligence analyst Andrew Liebesman said Apple’s three-pronged moves have left Alphabet’s position in iOS “more vulnerable than before.”
