Hey Google. Make Siri Work Better

“Google and Apple have long been among the more awkward relationships in tech. But in the age of artificial intelligence, both have good reasons to keep making it stick.

 

The two companies unveiled a deal on Monday that will effectively have Google's Gemini acting as a foundation for Apple's AI offerings, including "a more personalized Siri coming this year." Such a move had long been speculated on. But it was never a certainty given that Apple chose to team up with OpenAI for some of its earlier AI efforts.

 

But OpenAI is now working to become one of Apple's biggest threats.

 

And Google's recent ascendancy in the world of frontier AI models made this a hard deal for Apple not to do.

 

The two companies have a long-running relationship. Google serves as the default search provider on Apple's devices. And despite Apple frequently dinging its partner's business model while touting its privacy-first focus, the relationship has been a lucrative one for the iPhone maker.

 

Google pays Apple more than $20 billion a year now based on current estimates. And the low costs associated with that revenue stream make Google an outsized contributor to Apple's overall operating profit margins.

 

Financial terms of the latest deal involving Gemini weren't spelled out. Google's recent momentum in AI -- and Apple's well-known stumbles -- would suggest the search giant now has the upper hand in the relationship. Google's parent Alphabet is now worth more than Apple, and news of their deal pushed Alphabet's market capitalization this week past the $4 trillion mark for the first time.

 

But Google was always going to face some constraints to getting Gemini in front of the world's huge base of smartphone users. Google's Android operating system has a much higher share of the overall global market, but Apple's iOS has a stronger share of high-end smartphone users. They are the kind most able to afford the latest devices that have the necessary specs to run AI and pay extra for those types of services.

 

For Apple, going with Google and Gemini improves its chances of staying competitive as device rivals continue rolling out new AI functions and abilities that Apple's much-maligned Siri can't match. The iOS-Android split has been relatively stable for years, as most smartphone users grow comfortable with their platform of choice and don't feel compelled to switch.

 

But the growing gap between Gemini-powered devices and the iPhone has been getting noticed, which has left Apple with the risk of becoming the BlackBerry of the AI age. No disrupter is immune to being disrupted.” [1]

 

 

 

1. Hey Google. Make Siri Work Better. Gallagher, Dan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 15 Jan 2026: B10.