Report: Apple Executives Say They Would Reject Microsoft Bing Even If It Was Free

In the recently concluded trial where the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has argued that Google operates a search engine monopoly, it was revealed that Apple was paid $26 billion annually by Google to make its search engine the default on iPhones. Despite this, Apple executives held a low opinion of Microsoft’s Bing search engine. According to Apple’s Senior Vice President for Services, Eddy Cue, there is no meaningful alternative to Google Search. He stated, "There is no price Microsoft could ever offer" to make Apple preload Bing on its Safari browser. This statement was used to defend Google’s payments to Apple, highlighting Google's superiority over Bing and demonstrating how these deals reinforce Google’s monopolistic position by securing technological and financial leadership.

Cue further emphasised, “I don’t believe there’s a price in the world that Microsoft could offer us,” adding that Microsoft even offered Bing for free. “They could give us the whole company,” said Cue, who is one of the longest-serving executives at Apple, having been with the company since the late 1980s.

Beyond Apple, Google has similar contracts with Samsung and other Android OEMs, as well as numerous cellular carriers. These agreements are different for Android OEMs, being tied to access to Google’s cloud services and control of the Play Store. Judge Amit Mehta noted that most Fortune 500 companies lack alternatives to Google.

"Google understands there is no genuine competition for the defaults because it knows that its partners cannot afford to go elsewhere,” Judge Mehta wrote. “Time and again, Google’s partners have concluded that it is financially infeasible to switch default search engines or seek greater flexibility in search offerings because it would mean sacrificing the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars that Google pays them as revenue share.”

For the iPhone, ninety-five per cent of all general search queries are Google searches. Google’s internal estimates revealed that a ten to fifteen per cent loss of Safari traffic would result in a four to ten per cent drop in iOS Safari revenue, based on Apple Suggestions. The judge also noted that even if Apple wanted to compete with Google, it couldn't. Apple’s internal estimates indicated it would cost around $20 billion to replicate Google’s technical infrastructure and an additional $6 billion per year to maintain it. Instead, Apple receives over $20 billion annually from Google to make its search the default, providing a significant incentive to not only avoid competing directly but also to not consider alternatives.

This testimony and financial interplay illustrate the deep entanglement between Google and Apple, reinforcing the DOJ’s case of Google maintaining a monopoly through strategic, high-value partnerships.