Apple beefs up smartphone services in ‘silent war’ against Google

Apple is taking steps to separate its mobile operating system from features offered by Google, making advances around maps, search and advertising that have created a collision course between the Big Tech companies. The two Silicon Valley giants have been rivals in the smartphone market since Google acquired and popularized the Android operating system in the 2000s. Apple is still engaged in a “silent war” against its arch-rival by developing features that could allow the iPhone maker to further separate its products from services offered by Google. The first front of this battle is mapping, which started in 2012 when Apple released Maps, displacing its Google rival as a pre-downloaded app. The second front in the battle is the search feature. While Apple rarely discusses products while in development, the company has long worked on a feature known internally as “Apple Search," a tool that facilitates “billions of searches” per day. The third front in Apple’s battle could prove the most devastating: its ambitions in online advertising, where Google makes more than 80 percent of its revenues. Ultimately, Apple’s move on three fronts has left Google's position within iOS looking “more vulnerable than it ever has been before."