In full trial, Apple begins its separation with Google

Wednesday 07th May 2025 07:52 PM

Apple plans to add research functions based on artificial intelligence within its Safari browser, iPhone, iPad and Mac soon. It is not a rumor, but a declaration by Eddy Cue, senior vice-president of the services at Apple, made during the hearings of witnesses as part of the Google trial.

Users go less and less through Google

Partners such as Perplexity and Anthropic should soon join the list of available engines, although they are not defined as default values. This is indeed what Eddy Cue: We will add them to the list, they will probably not be the default value.

According to him, the number of research carried out via Safari decreased for the first time in April 2025. This decline suggests that more and more users are turning to artificial intelligence tools to find information, Abandoning traditional search engines.

This shift poses a first problem related to the agreement between Apple and Google. The first would affect around $ 20 billion a year, while the second would be remunerated via advertising revenues generated by research carried out. The change in behavior of users would jeopardize the two parts of the contract which would not be there anymore.

In addition, this partnership with Google is also threatened by the current antitrust action against Alphabet. If this agreement were to be canceled, Apple should reinvent its research model related to research, hence an increasing interest in the alternatives based on AI.

Eddy Cue, however, said thatApple hoped to negotiate similar income sharing agreements with new IA supplierswhile encouraging the latter to strengthen their capacities to compete with Google, especially in terms of research index and relevance of responses.

A repositioning in the face of the evolution of uses

This movement towards new IA partners reflects a broader trend at Apple, which is counting more and more on third -party companies to integrate artificial intelligence into its products. This could be explained in view of the delays accumulated by the firm in recent years and setbacks since the real-fake ads of the WWDC 2024.

The firm has already announced a partnership with OpenAI, which allows Chatgpt to strengthen Siri’s capacities with Apple Intelligence and iOS 18.4. This agreement provides for free chatgpt access for Apple users, in exchange for considerable visibility likely to convert paying subscribers.

The decision to integrate new IA engines into Safari illustrates Apple’s desire to adapt to the evolution of digital behavior. Faced with the rise of conversational research and AIA assistants, Apple seeks to diversify its partners while retaining a share of the income generated by research.