Apple Executive Explains Why the Company Would Never Build a Search Engine

Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, has confirmed that the iPhone-maker has no plans of developing a search engine like Google Search. In a declaration filed with the US federal court, Apple's top executive shared three reasons why the company would never build a search engine.

In his statement, Cue said that building a web browser would require the company to spend billions of dollars, and require a lot of time. It would also require the company to divert its resources for the same, which would take away the focus from its primary growth areas.

The Apple executive also pointed out that search is evolving rapidly owing to the recent developments in artificial intelligence and developing a separate search engine would make up for a risky economic proposition. "...search is rapidly evolving due to recent and ongoing developments in Artificial Intelligence. That makes it economically risky to devote the huge resources that would be required to create a search engine," Cue said in his written statement to the court first spotted by Reuters.

The third reason that the Apple executive shared for not building its own search engine is targeted advertising. Cue said that building a search engine would require the company to build a platform focused on selling targeted advertising, which in not a part of the company's core business. "Apple does not have the volume of specialized professionals and significant operational infrastructure needed to build and run a successful search advertising business," Cue added in his written statement to the court.

Lastly, the Apple executive said that building a search advertising business would also require the company to balance it ‘against Apple’s longstanding privacy commitment'.

Cue's statement came at a time when the company has asked to participate in Google's ongoing trial in Search antitrust case in the US. Among other things, the trial targets Google's revenue-sharing agreements with companies, like Apple, for making Search the default search engine on their web browsers.