“Some analysts believe the Apple-Google battle is likely to get much rougher in the months ahead,” Peter Burrows reports for BusinessWeek. “Jonathan Yarmis, research fellow with the consulting firm Ovum, thinks Apple may soon decide to dump Google as the default search engine on its devices, primarily to cut Google off from mobile data that could be used to improve its advertising and Android technology. Jobs might cut a deal with—gasp!—Microsoft to make Bing Apple’s engine of choice, or even launch its own search engine, says Yarmis. ‘I fully expect [Apple] to do something in search,’ he adds. ‘If there’s all these advertising dollars to be won, why would it want Google on its iPhones?'”
Burrows reports, “‘This rivalry is going to accelerate innovation,’ says Andreas Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and an early investor in Google. ‘Apple goes pretty fast, but having someone chasing you always makes you go faster. This is going to be good for consumers.'”
“Still, in a battle over the future of computing, friendship will almost surely be a casualty of progress,” Burrows reports. “‘You can just feel the tension rising,’ says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. ‘Until the Nexus One, the competition was at arm’s length. But the iPhone is Apple’s darling. Now it’s personal.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Currently, iPhone and iPod touch users have a choice of built-in search engines within Mobile Safari: Google or Yahoo (Settings>Safari>Search Engine) with Google being “on” by default on new Apple devices.
In addition, there are many Web Search apps available for iPhone and iPod touch. See them all via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.
Mac Safari users can easily install a plug-in such as the free Glims, to add multiple search engine choices to Safari.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I expect Apple to start using their own search engine called Spotlight in the near future.
Bang! My enemy’s enemy is my friend…??? Somehow I doubt it.
I prefer google over bing any day
Let’s say Apple does dump Google. And they do not have a search engine of thier own. Why would they run bing? Let’s face it most of us went to Apple because they were so disapointed with everything Microsoft made. I find it hard to believe that Steve Jobs would risk market share Just to slow down Google. I think we would see a Apple, Yahoo partnership, before we see Bing as the search engine of choice.
Android is, as yet, no real threat to Apple or the iPhone. Android is a threat mainly to Micro$oft, Symbian, Palm and RIM. Android will remain a non-threat for quite some time to come.
There’s plenty of room out there for both the iPhone and Android phones and people will soon see that buying an Android phone which is obsolete a few months after buying it, can only be updated a few times (if at all) via software and can only use 192 MB of RAM for apps simply can’t hold a candle to the iPhone (unless they HAVE to be on T-mobile, of course
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Now, whether Apple wants to get into search is another (and completely independent) question. I would bet against this- they have their hands full as it is with the tablet coming out. Until Apple can get out of the <10% computer market share, Google is (still) a good strategic ally.
I was reading this on the toilet, and Bing! I made a Ballmer.
Why would Apple use Microsoft BING ( dumbest product name ever conceived ) and help fund that government approved monopoly.
I tried the Bing app but soon deleted it as a hopeless cause. Google is ok but in a general search it throws up far more possibilites than necessary so I much prefer Yahoo. It gives me the best answers to my question without going all round the houses like google is prone to do.
Did M$ buy Yahoo?
Theres not really any choices out there. It’s either google which is good, Bing which is not as good or Baidu if you want to get arrested for being American and believing in Free Speech.
A headline on friday read: “Apple ready to go on buying binge? Apple may be moving into acquisition mode.”
Anyone feel like yelling “Yahoo!®?”
Bing is or will be providing the search results for Yahoo.
Bing………..Not going to happen.
That’s the dumbest suggestion in the world.
Apple will probably restrict iphone apps to the new mobile app service they bought to capture that revenue.
To answer this question one only needs to realize all the work Apple has done with local search on the desktop and with the iPhone. Clearly Apple will eventually launch their own Web Search Client. It is only a matter of time.
@ jarrettdailynews: Apple would be better off buying Yahoo than starting from scratch.
Isn’t iPhone software 4.0 update imminent?
@silverhawk: Not yet; they’ve been going back and forth. Apple could probably swoop in and make a good deal…which would totally piss off a former friend who left Yahoo because he didn’t want to be a MicroSerf (his words).
I don’t use the search field in Safari on my iPhone. In fact I use the Google app more than Safari.
Yeah, RIGHT!!!
They’ll release their own as part of MobileMe… maybe they’ll bring back “Sherlock” ?
“Until the Nexus One, the competition was at arm’s length.”
Uh, yeah… Google eked out 20,000 unit sales in a week. Apple sells that many per hour, iirc. I don’t think Apple much sees the Nexus One as competition. If anything, it gives them something to laugh about.
Crosoft’s bing? Let me laugh! Some analysts really should stop with their cocain!
Any company that advertises ‘do no evil’ does evil. These guys are ass lying dogs, that fsck their partners.
I hope Apple dumps these turds and kicks their ass in the mobile advertising competition.
Google was a great company, but now the enemy. The new Microturd.
Firstly, this supposed rivalry is absolutely rediculous! Anal-ists need a story to pontificate about whether it is real or not. Secondly, there is zero chance that Apple would align themselves with what they have blatently tried to prove as inferior for the last four years.
I think many things will come to light in the next couple of weeks. A whole new mobile universe within the apple world. MobileMe is good but it needs to be free now. And, once you are primarily using mobile me a simple spotlight search could give you all the info you need.