U.S. v. Google: Apple Never Seriously Considered Switching to Bing

Testifying in the U.S. v. Google antitrust trial, a Microsoft executive complained that Apple used Bing as a bargaining chip to wring more money out of Google and keep its search service as the default on the iPhone. But it never seriously considered switching to Bing for all the obvious reasons.

“Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does,” Microsoft CEO of advertising and web services Mikhail Parakhin said on the stand on Wednesday. “We are always trying to convince Apple to use our search engine.”

Getting Apple to switch to Bing would be a “gamer changer” for Microsoft, Parakhin noted. But today, Bing is “worse on mobile because [it] doesn’t have traffic” and it’s “uneconomical for Microsoft to invest more.” “Unless Microsoft gets a more significant, or firmer guarantee of distribution, it makes it uneconomical to invest.”

Google has been the default search engine in Safari since 2003 and on the iPhone since its initial release in 2007. It pays Apple billions each year for this lucrative traffic, possibly as much as $12 billion per year now, and Apple agreed to “support and defend” the deal in court. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has called this relationship a “monopolist flexing,” as few rivals could ever afford to pay as much, hindering competition.

Apple executive Eduardo “Eddy” Cue admitted on the stand previously that this relationship with Google—once an arch-enemy thanks to its copycat creation of Android—that his firm wanted to create its own search engine but only if it couldn’t reach a deal with Google. “It was in Google’s best interest and our best interest to get the deal done,” he testified. “We’ve always thought [Google Search] was the best,”

The Apple and Google alliance also impacted Microsoft: Even if it was somehow able to offer Apple more money upfront than Google, Apple wouldn’t earn as much from search revenue, making that switch untenable, Cue said.

As for the privacy implications of using Google Search on iPhone, which Apple markets for its respect of user privacy, Cue said that Apple requires the search engine on iPhone to allow searches for those who don’t log in, and it designed Safari to block tracking.