Search Rivalry

By Brad

According to Business Week, Apple is in talks to make Microsoft’s Bing search engine the default search in the next version of the iPhone. From the story:

The discussions reflect the accelerating rivalry between Apple and Google, now the main provider of Web search on the iPhone. While the two companies have worked as partners in the past and Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt had a seat on Apple’s board, Apple and Google have more recently begun competing in several markets, including mobile phones. Google sells a smartphone, the Nexus One, that competes directly with the iPhone and it has spearheaded development of a wireless handset operating system that rivals the iPhone OS.

Whether the search-switch discussions are indeed fueled by an Apple-Google rivalry, or are merely a bargaining chip for Apple to get more money from Google, remains to be seen. But at the end of the Business Week piece there is a bit of a bombshell:

Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a “skunk works” looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that “if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.” Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising—and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google—“Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

Google, Microsoft, and Apple all in the search business? That’s a lot of heavy hitters all vying for a piece of the same revenue pie.