Apple is engaged in a 'silent war' against Google, claim engineers
Former Apple engineers say that Apple still holds a grudge over how Android allegedly copied iOS, and is steadily working to remove Google from the iPhone.
It is the very slimmest of reports, but the Financial Times quotes two former Apple engineers about Apple and Google's rivalry, and it does fit with previous accounts.
Both former engineers reportedly used the word "grudge" to describe Apple's relationship with Google, while one of them went further and described it as a "silent war." Neither source is quoted as saying anything further, but the Financial Times reports that there are three battlegrounds in this war, and the first was Apple Maps.
The launch of Apple Maps in 2012 was disastrous enough that the service is still unfairly seen as inferior to the Google Maps it hoped to replace.
But Apple Maps was created because Google refused to give the iPhone the same turn-by-turn directions it was producing on Android. It was a move by Apple to give users a feature that was increasingly becoming necessary, and which would prevent buyers moving to its rival.
There's no such clear need for Apple to work on what the Financial Times describes as another battleground, that of search. Nonetheless, since at least 2015 there has been AppleBot, a search engine that at times has been used by Siri and Spotlight.
That's a distinctly separate service from offering a Google-style search for users, but it was one reason why reports keep surfacing that an Apple Search is coming.
However, this may have been stymied in late 2022 when key staff said to be working on Apple Search left to rejoin Google.
There is a third area where Apple is believed to be targeting Google, though it may be just as an obvious expansion of its business instead of a "silent war" attack. It's Apple's own advertising business, which is growing enormously, even as the company's privacy features are allegedly affecting third-party advertisers.
Apple has not commented on the Financial Times report.
Read on AppleInsider
It is the very slimmest of reports, but the Financial Times quotes two former Apple engineers about Apple and Google's rivalry, and it does fit with previous accounts.
Both former engineers reportedly used the word "grudge" to describe Apple's relationship with Google, while one of them went further and described it as a "silent war." Neither source is quoted as saying anything further, but the Financial Times reports that there are three battlegrounds in this war, and the first was Apple Maps.
The launch of Apple Maps in 2012 was disastrous enough that the service is still unfairly seen as inferior to the Google Maps it hoped to replace.
But Apple Maps was created because Google refused to give the iPhone the same turn-by-turn directions it was producing on Android. It was a move by Apple to give users a feature that was increasingly becoming necessary, and which would prevent buyers moving to its rival.
There's no such clear need for Apple to work on what the Financial Times describes as another battleground, that of search. Nonetheless, since at least 2015 there has been AppleBot, a search engine that at times has been used by Siri and Spotlight.
That's a distinctly separate service from offering a Google-style search for users, but it was one reason why reports keep surfacing that an Apple Search is coming.
However, this may have been stymied in late 2022 when key staff said to be working on Apple Search left to rejoin Google.
There is a third area where Apple is believed to be targeting Google, though it may be just as an obvious expansion of its business instead of a "silent war" attack. It's Apple's own advertising business, which is growing enormously, even as the company's privacy features are allegedly affecting third-party advertisers.
Apple has not commented on the Financial Times report.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Doesn't seem to me to be a grudge, but simply Apple trying to compete.
It doesn't at all look like harboring a grudge, though I would certainly understand if there was some resentment.
I'm sure there were a pallet's worth of dead iPhones littering the floor of Google labs while Google worked on the second coming of Android.
Let the fire burn and the silent war range on
I really want to de-Google my life.
Meanwhile, Google started putting real GPS based turn-by-turn directions onto their Android devices. Apple wanted that feature as well. That's when Google laid out the demands to Apple to provide user data in exchange for that level of Maps services. Apple was very privacy minded and unwilling to do that, so they created their own mapping service. Whatever rift existed between Apple and Google at time from Google copying Apple was more of a sidebar than the driving decision for Apple to role their own maps service.
Picture this.; It’s a winter evening. A reporter is sitting in a bar nursing his gin and tonic. He needs a story and none of his sources have come through. While he’s there he over hears two guys at a nearby table. They are having a loud conversation over a long string of beers. The reporter gets the idea that these guys know something about tech, he assumes they must be engineers, From the tone he gets that they have no love for Apple, he guesses they must have left the company and are unhappy about it. As he listens they talk about grudges, and silent wars, and Apple having it in for Google. This is good stuff. The reporter listens for some time, and then pays for his drink and leaves. He goes home and writes up this great story from ‘unnamed sources’ that are ‘former Apple engineers’ that spills the beans on a vindictive and petty Apple.
Part of this is built into the DNA, part is Steve’s legacy but also the upper echelon of management doesn’t have the self serving churn of other technology companies.
I am positive they have not forgotten how Google stabbed them in the back.
And don’t you find it interesting that these stories are popping up now that tech is laying off in droves. First we had the tear jerker from Spotify about how Apple is the evil empire and the base reason they had to lay off 6% of their workforce. Now comes the alleged ‘secret war’ against Google.
Tim Cook (aka Dr. Evil) to Johny Srouji (aka Scotty), “I want sharks with laser beams on their heads!”
Apple has a long history of being left behind and screwed by partnerships and eventually having to forge their own path. We got TrueType fonts, thanks to Adobe being greedy. We got iTunes Music Store and Safari thanks to Microsoft being monopolistic @ssholes.