William Gallagher
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.
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48 Comments
Yeah. Look at Xiaomi & a lot of core android features. They are clearly clones of the iOS user interface. They can shove useless gimmicks all they want , but the similarities are there from 2008
Are these disgruntled employees?
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.
I still hold a grudge. They way Google copied iOS was f*****-up
Let the fire burn and the silent war range on
Hoping Apple starts releasing hardware w/their HomeKit update.
I really want to de-Google my life.