It’s Time for Apple to Make a Search Engine
By: Omar Zahran
Tags: Apple, Innovation, Technology, Search Engines, Business

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Have you ever thought about something that a company should make but they never do? I’m sure back in the 90s, someone thought to themselves “Why does Porsche only make sports cars? I bet they could engineer an awesome sedan”. This fictional person would have been validated when the Porsche Cheyenne came to market. I find myself bearing this level of validation with the rumors that Apple is close to finally ditching Google and Microsoft and just saying screw it, let’s make our search engine. On the surface, this might seem like a silly idea. After all, Google and Bing do a great job of working with the iPhone and other Apple products. But upon further thought, Apple making their solution makes a ton of sense.

An Ever-Expanding Portfolio

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It is no secret that Apple has ambitions of becoming more of a software-driven company. This much is clear with the successful launch of services like iCloud, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+ over the years. What is also clear is that the hardware side of Apple, it’s legacy wing if you will, has become completely independent of outside partners. With the news coming this week that new Macs are ditching Intel processors in favor of the company’s in-house laptop processors it calls the M1 chip, this move to self-reliance is a clear priority to Apple.

There has always been a sense of exclusivity with Apple, hence the origin of the term “walled garden” to describe how Apple attracts customers and keeps them using the companies products. For years, this has been applied to hardware products only. Where it was hard to leave Apple once you had invested in the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. The Apple Watch, for instance, is utterly useless without an iPhone or iPad to connect it to. Apple’s argument has always been that this closed-off nature is for the benefit of the end-user, that this tight integration between its products creates a more user-friendly experience. This same strategy is now being employed with the companies services as well.

Outside of Apple Music, Apple services are designed to run on Apple hardware. While Apple TV+ is available on some smart TV solutions, it is designed to be utilized on Apple hardware like the Apple TV box. Apple Arcade will only run on Apple hardware, and the same goes for Fitness+ and News+. These services are now a part of the overall Apple experience. The modern Apple computing solution involves not only committing to a hardware ecosystem but also a software one that is designed to fit in all aspects of your life. The idea that the company is putting forward is to eliminate other services from third party companies and instead have Apple handle that for you, it only makes sense then that a search engine for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac is the next evolution of that idea.

What Would an Apple Search Engine Look Like

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It is no mystery that Google Search is by far the dominant internet search platform. In the United States, Google holds a commanding 88.4% of the internet search market while Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo hold the bulk of the remaining web query market. There are a few reasons why this number is so lopsided. The first and foremost is that having a competent web searching platform relies heavily on artificial intelligence to be able to know what users will want to click on and how to correctly place advertisements in search to make the service more revenue and make partners continue to want to advertise on the platform. Secondly, Google search is the default search engine on all Android phones and Chromebooks which immediately positions it well. There is also the idea that Google was the first to market and focus on search creating something of a Kleenex effect when it comes to web searches, to the point that no one calls it web searches anymore.

In this market of sheer dominance from Google, how does Apple differentiate itself? Microsoft has bundled Bing in Windows devices and even gives users rewards points for using its service and cannot get to 10% market share. DuckDuckGo has gone all-in on being a search engine focused on privacy with no ads or trackers like Google and Bing, yet they too are largely irrelevant. What then, would be the appeal of an Apple-based search engine?

While DuckDuckGo hasn’t struck mass appeal with its privacy-focused approach, this is an approach that Apple could take with its efforts. Apple has created an entire marketing effort centered around the iPhone being a secure phone. The phone that doesn’t get malware as Android phones do. What Apple has that DuckDuckGo does not have is a massive marketing budget. Apple is very efficient at selling privacy as a feature, and would likely have billboards made to highlight this fact in a search engine.

An Apple search engine would be expected to keep all data on-device and have full integration into Apple services and throughout the operating system. Apple will also need to show itself as the anti-Google and avoid the temptation to serve targeted ads, especially on mobile. Apple could then easily craft a message to iPhone users that the Apple search will be a privacy-focused experience that does not track every activity and offers an ad-free experience.

While Apple making this sort of a direct challenge to a dominant Google app seems rather ridiculous, this would not be the first time that the company decided to replace a Google solution in favor of an in-house solution. Back in 2012, Apple released Apple Maps to replace Google Maps as the default navigation and maps application on the iPhone. This transition was not an easy one as early versions of Apple Maps occasionally offered incorrect information that prompted CEO Tim Cook to issue an apology. Since then, however, Apple has slowly been making the app better to the point that many iPhone users have abandoned Google Maps in favor of Apple Maps especially as the Google solution has become more bloated with unnecessary features over time. The blueprint for Apple to make a search engine competitor to Google is there, and Apple has shown that it can build a competent alternative to Google apps.

The Walled Garden Grows Larger

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In many tech circles, fans often joke about Apple’s “walled garden”. Where once someone starts using Apple products, they stay locked in because Apple has a way of creating a reliance on its services. In the past, this has meant creating lock-in through services like iMessage, FaceTime, and AirDrop. Now it seems that the company is starring to double down on this strategy and create more of a sense of exclusivity. One of the few remaining obstacles to cross seems to be the search engine, in terms of something that is interacted with daily by the user.

When you go down the list of first-party software solutions that Apple has made the standard on iPhone, the progression towards this seems natural:

Apple Music : the default music streaming service that gets new features on iOS first

: the default music streaming service that gets new features on iOS first iCloud : Apple’s in-house cloud storage system only available on Apple hardware

: Apple’s in-house cloud storage system only available on Apple hardware iMessage : Apple’s proprietary instant messaging service that only works with Apple hardware

: Apple’s proprietary instant messaging service that only works with Apple hardware Apple News+ : the new way to get curated news on Apple devices

: the new way to get curated news on Apple devices Apple TV+ : Apple’s way of competing with Netflix, Hulu, and Google TV

: Apple’s way of competing with Netflix, Hulu, and Google TV Apple Calendar: the default way of scheduling events on the iPhone

Apple’s messaging with all of these software solutions is that the company will create the best experience for Apple users through its apps as opposed to having to rely upon third-party solutions. Yet with the most simple of internet-related smartphone tasks, the web search, the company still does not have a solution and relies heavily on Google and Bing services to cater to its users. This is the missing piece of the Apple mobile computing puzzle that the company will look to solve sooner rather than later.

By having its search engine for iPhone users, Apple will create an argument of justification for the high price of the iPhone. Apple has never been a phone maker that makes low-end or “cheap” devices. iPhones always have and always will demand a price premium. Where a company like OnePlus is trying to diversify its portfolio with $200 Android phones, Apple remains adamant that its phones are worth paying extra for. Part of this is the Apple experience of tightly integrated software complemented by excellent hardware.

Moving forward, these software solutions are what will drive the differentiation of the iPhone versus a sea of Android competitors. The only way that Apple knows how to differentiate is through exclusivity. Having a dedicated search engine that is exclusive to Apple hardware creates this sense of exclusivity where the company can actively market a search engine without data tracking and ads that are ready out of the box on every new iPhone. By being able to mention all of these exclusive software features that cannot be accessed on anything but an iPhone demand is created beyond the simple aesthetics of the hardware. Apple has realized that the future of its smartphone business revolves around software more than hardware, and the company building its search engine will be a step in this direction.