Your phone may no longer be available in ten times. That’s never a crazy think; it’s coming from Apple’s management.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of solutions, made the suggestion in recent court testimony that the phone might no longer be needed in a decade.
As he claimed while giving testimony in the continuing antitrust case against Google,” You may not have an iPhone 10 years from today, as ridiculous as it sounds,” he said.
The statement is the first time a top Apple professional has publicly discussed the possibility that the tech giant’s most popular product might be outdated. Inbroader conversations about AI, search engines, and the agency’s long-standing agreement with Google were framed by Cue’s notes.
Apple’s potential transition to AI-based research
Cue’s statement wasn’t really fanciful; it was made in response to discussions about Apple shifting its focus away from AI-based search. Apple appears to be getting significantly uninterested in keeping its substantial$ 20 billion partnership with Google to preserve Google Search as Safari’s default search engine.
Apple is “actively considering” updating its Safari internet browser to incorporate AI-driven search engines. Cue confirmed during his testimony that Apple has discussions with AI businesses about possible substitutes for traditional search terms, including OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Anthropic.
Cue acknowledged that these Artificial tools also need development, adding,” We will put them to the list — they probably won’t get the default.”
User behaviour is already being affected by this change. According to Cue, Safari searches dropped for the first time past month, and the decline is related to people using AI rather than standard search engines.
Investors were irritated by Apple’s decision to leave its profitable partnership with Google. Following Cue’s comments, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, saw its shares fall by as much as 8.7 %, while Apple shares dropped by 2.7 %. The overall share market also experienced a temporary decline.
Google’s search ad revenue comes from Safari alone, which is a sizable Acco portion of the rd ng o CNBC abou 6% o Googl ‘s s partnership’s arch ad revenue.
The “golden duck” position of the iPhone and its possible demise
Cue acknowledged that the economic stakes are high despite this change in AI. Over the potential loss of Google’s revenue-sharing agreement, he said,” I have lost sleep.” Google continues to provide Apple with the best financial conditions for normal searches at this time.
Sign did point out that real innovation frequently necessitates difficult decisions, citing Apple’s history.
He claimed that the iPhone and iPod were” we killed ourselves.” Most businesses find it difficult to commit suicide when novel technologies is introduced because of fear. Why do you “kill” the beautiful bird?
Cue warned that the company may remain flexible as AI continues to evolve despite the fact that the iPhone accounted for nearly half of Apple’s$ 95.4 billion profit in Q2 2025.
The only way to really have real competition is when you experience technological shifts. These opportunities are created by engineering transitions, he said.
