Apple vs. Google in the Antitrust Trial: Apple’s Browser Wasn’t Built to Win, and it Did Not Lock It Down

Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is set to testify at the US v. Google antitrust trial on Tuesday, as the trial enters its third week. It underscores Apple’s role in the Justice Department’s case against the company’s flagship search engine, which is accused of violating antitrust law. News of Cue’s scheduling was posted by Bloomberg’s Leah Nylen and Big Tech on Trial on X, formerly Twitter.

In roughly 15 minutes of public testimony, Giannandrea suggested that Apple’s browser didn’t favor Google as much as the Justice Department claimed — at least, as of last week. A setting for selecting a second search engine is included in the newly announced iOS 17 that lets users choose between Yahoo and Bing. That makes switching between engines potentially easier.

The quality of its search engine is believed to be responsible for its dominance. It says that Bing doesn’t have much of an effect in the market because of the default placement of Microsoft’s Bing on the Windows operating system.

Weinberg said that DuckDuckGo made a quintessentially ignorant effort to have its privacy focused search engine implemented in browsers incognito mode, but was stymied by the fact that they hadn’t locked it down. Weinberg countered that the choice screens were poorly designed, as he claimed DuckDuckGo did not get a boost from European laws that required users to pick a search engine.

Meagan Bellshaw, a Justice Department lawyer, asked Cue if he would have walked away from the deal if the two sides couldn’t agree on a revenue-share figure. He never considered it because he felt that it was in the best interest of the company. The deal was more than economics, and that Apple never considered building its own search product or substituting another provider, as was argued by Cue. There wasn’t an alternative to GOOGLE at that time. He said there still isn’t one.

An Apple User’s Choice: Apple or Pichai? Hearing a Prosecutive Attorney in Apple’s Best Interest

Eddy Cue, in a dark suit, peered down at the monitor in front of him. The courtroom in Washington, DC, had malfunctioned but the tech was up and running so they could show the witnesses an image of three Apple products, each demonstrating how the phone works. Cue squinted down at the screen.

He said the resolution on this was terrible. “You should get a Mac.” That got some laughs in an otherwise staid and quiet courtroom. The Judge leaned into his mic and said, “If Apple would like to make a donation.” that got even funnier. Then everybody got back down to business.

Apple believes in protecting its users Privacy, and it also believes in GOOGLE, which is another message Cue had. It was the question of the day if the two statements are true.

Apple demanded a higher percentage of the revenue from Apple users that it directed to search engine, when the two sides reworked their relationship, according to the witness. Discussion of specific numbers was reserved for closed court sessions, but Cue wanted Apple to get a higher percentage, while Pichai wanted to keep the deal as it was. We weren’t told about the compromise in court, but since then, they have been paying Apple that amount.

Bellshaw asked Cue a number of questions about the iPhone setup process. Those three screenshots showed the Appearance screen that shows up when you first boot up your iPhone so you can pick font sizes; the location-tracking prompt that appears when you open Maps; and the App Tracking Transparency pop-up that tells you when an app wants to collect your data. Bellshaw pointed out that Apple gives its users a choice regarding many things, large and small, but he did not object to all of them being considered part of setup.