Microsoft CEO Assesses It's Not Easy to Change Default Settings on Computers and Smartphones

JAKARTA - Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, stated that the idea of easily changing the default settings on computers and smartphones was "stupid". He expressed this when testifying in a very rare antitrust trial between the United States Department of Justice against Google.

Nadella rejects the argument that has been put forward by Google, namely that it is easy to change the default settings on the device. He stated that Microsoft, as a technological powerhouse, had tried to make the Bing search engine a default setting on Apple smartphones but was rejected.

The government has argued that Google, which is worth more than US $ 1 trillion (Rp. 15.3 quadrillion) and controls about 90% of the search market, illegally pays around US $ 10 billion (Rp. 153 trillion) every year to smartphone manufacturers such as Apple and wireless carriers such as AT&T and others to make the Google search engine the default setting on their devices.

"Today, changing default settings is easiest on Windows and most difficult on mobile devices," Nadella said. "When you wake up in the morning and brush your teeth, you search on Google," he added, referring to Google's dominance in search.

Judge Amit Mehta, who will rule on the case being tried in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, asked Nadella why Apple would switch to Bing given the lower quality of Microsoft's products.

The question showed that Google's argument - that it was dominant because of the quality of its product and not because of illegal activity - had piqued the judge's interest.

Nadella responded that Microsoft had worked to show that Bing engineers could “address the quality gap” with access to the volume of requests made on Apple smartphones.

On the topic of the next big tech market, artificial intelligence, Nadella testified that big tech companies' efforts to build huge content libraries to train their large language models and build artificial intelligence "reminds me of the early stages of distribution deals."

"When I meet with publishers now, they say Google will write such and such an exclusive check, and you have to match it," he said, quoted by Reuters.

Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, long after the tech giant faced its own federal antitrust lawsuit. Those court battles, which began in 1998 and ended with a settlement in 2001, forced Microsoft to end some business practices and paved the way for companies like Google.

When Google, founded in 1998, became the leading search engine in the internet industry, the two became bitter rivals. Both have web browsers, search engines, email services, and many other overlaps. They have recently become competitors in the artificial intelligence space, with Microsoft investing heavily in OpenAI and Google building the AI chatbot Bard, among other investments.