The company’s employees were shocked to learn about Samsung’s decision and entered panic mode. After all, Google’s contract with Samsung earns it an annual estimated revenue of $3 billion. And if Samsung goes this route, Apple could very well be next and make it miss out on an annual revenue of $20 billion.
The company is amping up the current search engine with new AI features and also wants to make a new AI-powered search engine, per NYT. The new search engine would offer a more personalized experience than the existing one by trying to anticipate users’ needs.
Contract between Google and Samsung is under negotiation
Samsung is the number one smartphone maker in the world and sold 259 million units last year. The South Korean giant’s phones and tablets run Google’s Android operating system, so employees were understandably shocked that Samsung wanted to switch to another search engine after 12 years.
It cannot be said for that sure Microsoft’s focus on AI is behind Samsung’s decision to switch to Bing, but that’s what has been assumed at Google. The contract between the two is under negotiation and it’s likely that Samsung will stick with Google for now.
Google is eager to retain Samsung and has apparently asked employees to “help put together material for a pitch to Samsung.”
A Google spokesperson told NYT that Android phone manufacturers are free to adopt technologies from different companies.
Google is obsessed with modernizing its search engine experience per today’s report but has no clear timeline on when the new technology will be released. Although Bard is ad-free, the company’s new search engine probably won’t be. After all, the search business is Google’s bread and butter. It was worth $162 billion in 2022.
