Back in 2020, a deal discussion made between two of the biggest tech companies in the world would have changed how the mobile landscape would have looked like moving forward. Microsoft was talking to Apple about making Bing the default search engine for iPhones, but reportedly, Apple said ‘not interested’.
Microsoft met up with Apple’s services chief, Eddy Cue – the same person who got Google as the iPhone’s default search engine. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the talks did not go past the initial stages as Apple was not keen on having Bing on their phones.
This topic popped up as the US Department of Justice is in a legal fight against Google, to show that the Mountain View company is abusing its position as a top search engine provider. The US DOJ has called both Apple and Microsoft to testify in the ongoing trial, and the Bing pitch came up in one of the pieces of evidence in the trial.
Apple and Google struck their first search engine accord in 2002, ahead of Apple releasing its first Mac web browser. Over time, the agreement expanded to Apple’s new devices, most notably the iPhone. By 2020, Apple was collecting US$4bil (RM18.7bil) to US$7bil (RM32.8bil) annually from the arrangement, according to the DOJ.
That agreement includes Safari on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Even though Google is the active search engine for mobile devices – Bing is still being used by Apple in its other products. Siri and Spotlight were using Bing between 2013 and 2017 but was changed in 2017 after the updated revenue sharing agreement.
In his testimony, Cue stressed that Apple sees no need to develop its own search tool because Google clearly is the best option – a very different take when Apple and Google are competitors in other areas – like Maps (Google Maps vs Apple Maps) and voice assistants.
[SOURCE]
