Apple Inc. made an unusual pitch in its bid to save a lucrative search partnership with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, saying that the deal might not be necessary in the long run and that even the iPhone may fall out of use.

Apple will be hurting if it loses its $20b per year cash cow, but it has solid options for a future without the search giant.

Mainly: What happens to the company if lots of people start using AI engines to answer questions instead of Google's dominant search engine? Now it looks like that might actually be happening. Eddy Cue,