Alphabet has been paying Apple for years to maintain its dominant position as iPhone’s default search engine but an observed decrease in searches through Apple’s browser for the first time could be suggesting a shift in consumer behaviour towards alternative search engines, especially AI-powered ones.
On May 7, shares of Google’s parent company sank more than 7% after Apple’s senior vice vice president of services, Eddy Cue, testified in an ongoing antitrust trial by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Google that Apple are “actively-looking at” artificial intelligence (AI) search engines that could contend Google as the default search engine option on iPhones and other devices.
The sell-off was a clear indicator of anxiety amongst investors.
