Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has some Apple news for us, and it has nothing to do with the iPhone 17 series that will be unveiled next week (on September 9th to be exact). In a series of tweets written by Gurman, he says that Apple is planning to build an AI-based web search tool next year. It will compete with ChatGPT and Perplexity. You might remember that back in June, there was speculation that Apple would buy Perplexity AI.
Perplexity doesn't trade on an exchange yet, but it does have a valuation of $18 billion. Some financial publications said that it could cost Apple $25-$30 billion to purchase Perplexity. Considering that Apple has never spent more than $3 billion on a single acquisition, it is hard to imagine Apple making that leap. This is not to say that Apple couldn't afford such a deal, especially with its piggybank loaded with $160 billion in cash.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple is planning to launch an AI-based web search tool. | Image credit-X
By the way, in case you were wondering, that $3 billion deal, which still stands as the largest in Apple history, took place in May 2014 when Apple bought Beats Audio. The deal landed Apple the Beats Music streaming platform with 111,000 subscribers. The latter became Apple Music, which currently has over 94 million subscribers worldwide. But you can forget about Apple making any acquisition soon, says Gurman.
Will Apple release an AI based web search tool in 2026?
Yes. Apple needs to be focused on AI and it will do so.
25%
No. AI is not Apple's thing and it shows.
75%
Way too early to say.
0%
If Apple does get into the web search business, it probably will have to say goodbye to the deal it has with Google that makes the latter's search experience the default search engine on Apple devices, including the Safari browser on the iPhone, iPads, and Macs. Apple and Google have had this deal in place for years.
The Managing Editor for Global Consumer Tech at Bloomberg News also says that Apple is leaning toward selecting Google to help work with an overhauled version of Siri. Apple is expected to release what has become known as "Personal Siri" with the release of iOS 26.4 next spring. This revised version of Siri is supposed to be able to go through your texts, emails, and calendar to find information to answer such queries as, "What time is Mom's plane landing at the airport?"
Apple already produced an ad for "Personal Siri" but had to pull it after announcing a delay. And making things look even worse for Apple, Google unveiled its Magic Cue feature for the Pixel 10 series last month. The Magic Cue tries to pull up information that it anticipates you'll need before you request it. This is available right now on the Pixel 10 series and we wouldn't be surprised to see it eventually offered to users with older Pixel models perhaps going back to the Pixel 6 line.
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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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