Cook wanted Apple and Google to be 'deep, deep partners'
Apple CEO Tim Cook talked to Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the tech giants working together in 2018, Google's ongoing antitrust trial revealed, with notes revealing a willingness on both sides to make the deal work.
Google pays to be the default search in Safari for iOS
Google has paid Apple billions of dollars to be the default search in Safari, and the Justice Department's antitrust trial against Alphabet has delved deep into the relationship between the two companies. In one piece of evidence shown in court on Monday, it seems the two were very comfortable with the deal, and could've done more.
Multiple passages were briefly shown in court, according to The Verge, with little time to accurately transcribe them completely. The stretches that did get copied down indicate that the two CEOs of Apple and Google intended to deepen the work between the firms.
The notes, stemming from Google, revolved around a two-hour meeting in 2018, with Cook and Pichai in attendance alongside other executives.
In the noted sections, it is said that "Tim's overall message to Google was I imagine us as being able to be deep deep partners; deeply connected where our services end and yours begin and sees no natural impediment to us doing more together."
Cook knew there was a past between the companies but "doesn't feel encumbered by it and wants to figure out how we work more deeply together." Cook also said this would also involve sharing "information better," and apparently stressed this point a few times.
The Apple CEO also apparently told Pichai "we can take this slowly," with "no regrets over how we have handled things to date."
In another note, the Google CEO expressed that the company would "love to see the iPhone numbers grow and will work in good faith to answer the queries you send us."
One last note from an unknown speaker states "Our vision is that we work as if we are one company. There is a reluctance on both parts about sharing things. It would be great to hurdle over that."
"We've been back in a good stead for awhile; build a Google app that really builds a great experience (Sundar). We could extend the terms of the deal," the last of the typed notes reads.
While it is unclear exactly who said what, or whether they are direct quotes from the conversation or summed-up points, the notes do at least show there was a lot of good faith between Apple and Google at that 2018 meeting.
The trial continues.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Some fans might hate, be silly, and be destructive, but the two companies respect each other and have for a long time. I know that's not what some of us want to hear as it ruins long-time perceptions of Apple vs Google.
I just wish that, at a fundamental level, their business was driven by purely that technology advancing humanity and making the world a better place. It would be interesting to count the man hours they've spent analyzing and developing technology to better gather information about people and process it for the purposes of making their advertising business more lucrative. And looking at places where they could have made their services more efficient and easy to use, but didn't because it would mean they get less data from people. Though it's certainly not as bad as social media companies using psychology to keep people locked in and addicted to their services.
Anyway, nothing is black and white. There are great people at both Google and Apple, I just personally don't believe surveillance Capitalism is a good path forward, and I think the ethics Jobs imparted at Apple have kept it off that path as much as possible.
Health and human longetivity
Disease research and treatments
Genomic analysis
Cancer detection
Flood forecasting
Climate and weather prediction
Research into improving construction and processes
Wildfire detection and prediction
Quantum computing
Robotics,
Coding languages
Open-source software development and standards....
It's a very long list.
That said, all of the positive work being done doesn't wipe from my mind the negative actions which turned me off Google in the first place. And I still don't believe that people should be surveilled without their consent and understanding of what it's being used for. If there's nothing to hide, just be completely open and honest about everything from the get go.
Understood, even if Apple is good with it, no one else is required to be. Yours is a very valid opinion, and one that's shared by others.
that way Apple gets to look like the good guy, all privacy focused and stuff, while Google gets to keep their shady rep and steal your data. Then Apple can pay back a fraction of google’s default search payment, and squire the data Google stole from Apple customers. It’s a win-win!
good ol’ Timmy. Always knew he was going places.
IMO a lot of the Apple good and Google evil stuff is just zealots being zealots. The truth is more subtle.
Or at least foreplay with Cook’s feely-touchy vernacular.
For myself personally, I've always been against exploitation of any kind. I feel like many in the tech industry are quite proud of being able to use their knowledge and relative intelligence (relative in the sense of knowing a lot about technology, but not so much about things like empathy and human connection) to pull one over on people who don't understand technology. Or are proud of finding ways of getting things for free using loopholes in the law, or lack of laws, no matter what it costs others. These are things I'll always call out as unfair and unethical because I'm on the side of humanity rather than the mindless pursuit of money (as Jobs put it, "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't interest me"). Building connections, respecting the work of, and being fair to others rather than trying to find ways to scam or exploit them. Setting good examples for future generations, and trying to leave the world in a better state than when you came into it.