Google once pitched the idea of preinstalling its search app on every iPhone
Apple and Google currently have a very lucrative partnership where Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year to remain the default search engine in the Safari iOS app. But it seems that at one point in time, that wasn’t enough for Google as they apparently wanted to be deeper integrated in iOS.
This is according to details part of the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google, where it was revealed that Google had floated the idea of building a Google Search app that would be preloaded onto every iPhone.
It seems that back in 2018, Apple discovered that in their deal with Google, Google’s overall revenue was growing a lot faster compared to what Apple was getting in return and they voiced their concerns to the company, in which one of the suggestions from Google was the idea of creating a search app that would be bundled in iOS.
Google’s suggestion was based on the Android version of the Google Search app in which Google found that it was extremely popular and drove users to perform more searches, which in return increased revenue for Google through ads. Presumably Google thought that by expanding their reach to iOS would be even better, but Apple ultimately refused.
If there is one thing to like about Apple’s iPhones is that they do not come with preloaded apps other than apps that they make themselves. This is versus Android phones where back in the day, bloatware was a serious issue where carriers and manufacturers would bundle all kinds of junk apps that users would hardly use.
Source: The Verge