A Microsoft executive complained that when it came to the search-engine wars with Alphabet subsidiary Google, the company’s Bing was never more than a bargaining chip to Apple.
Microsoft has been trying for years to displace Google as the default search engine for iPhones, but Apple never seriously considered switching to Bing, Mikhail Parakhin, the head of Microsoft’s advertising and web services, said during the US government’s antitrust trial against Google in Washington.
“Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does,” the Microsoft executive said.
Parakhin, who joined Microsoft in 2019 from Russian search engine Yandex NV, said Microsoft met with Apple as recently as 2021 to discuss a potential switch to Bing, but didn’t make any progress.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, no, Apple committed business!
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In the days when the Mac was very much a niche platform, a big company used Apple as a bargaining chip by making a modest investment in Apple so that their company would not be seen as a monopoly. That company was Microsoft. How times change.
And I bet they’re kicking themselves for not retaining their 15% stake!
Don’t know why anyone would down-vote the GP comment. That’s exactly what happened. For what was little more than pocket change, M$ (as we called it then 🙂 made sure Apple didn’t go under, just so they could claim to have competition.
I believe it was $150M, which nowadays Apple earns before breakfast.
And how is leveraging on potential supplier of a search engine vs another illegal?
Breaking News: It isn’t. Duh… Just M$ crying like a little child in court…
In other news, the sun rose from the east this morning, and it is expected to sit in the west.
Breaking news, Congress is deciding that this might be illegal and need for a law… Thus, when you go car shopping and leverage one car dealer against another, that will be deemed – wait for it – illegal!
So it sounds like the search engine companies pay exorbitant amounts of money to make their product default rather than market it as something good that the customer would want to choose. Hoping that the customer is too lazy or uninformed to make their own choice. Wow. As long as I can choose I’m good.
The moment Apple is forced to implement selecting the default search engine during initial setup Google loses any incentive to pay Apple as it does now. IMO it’s to Apple’s benefit, at least till they are able to create their own search engine, to keep the agreement.
good