Apple has all the elements it has if the company decides to build its own search engine for its device.
Since more than ten years ago, Google has been the iPhone’s default search engine. As part of the agreement, it is said that Google pays Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion annually.
Even while that deal is profitable, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims in his Power On newsletter published on Sunday that Apple could perform better.
According to him, if Apple were to introduce its own search engine, the advertising revenue it could bring in would certainly compete with the cash stream from the Apple Watch market.
Gurman notes that although such a move is a “long shot,” Apple has already given a preview of what such an offering would entail by incorporating search engines into services like the App Store, Maps, Apple TV, and News.
Apple has a team working on a cutting-edge search engine with the working name of Pegasus as part of the potential attempt.
According to Gurman, the technology, which is being developed under the direction of John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and AI, surfaces results more precisely.
Additionally, Apple has been experimenting with Spotlight, its search tool for iOS users to find items on their devices. Gurman notes that a few years ago, Apple began integrating web search results to this tool, although those results were supplied by third parties.
