euFFrat
20-01-2010, 17:12
In an unexpected turn of events, Microsoft's Bing could end up powering the Apple iPhone, if talks between Apple and Microsoft come to fruition.
The talks, according to BusinessWeek, have not reached fruition. A deal between Apple and Microsoft may mean iPhone owners would automatically get Microsoft's Bing as the main search engine, possibly requiring users to actively change phone settings if they want to search via Google.
As the story notes, Google and Apple (and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft) have increasingly gone head-to-head in a number of different markets, including mobile phones and Web browsers. So far, however, Apple has stayed out of the search market, meaning that it is also free to strike a preferred-vendor deal with another company. It's possible that Microsoft might strike a deal similar to the one it struck with RIM: one day, a Bing icon would simple appear on the device, pushed via a software update.
I can't confirm whether this is true or not; in any case, if the deal goes through, quite a bit will depend on how the Bing preference is hardwired into the Apple OS. If user can easily change the search preferences to Google (or another engine) then this will merely be an annoyance for those who search with Google. If the hooks go deeper... well, the angst may be a bit sharper as well.
Originally posted to AppScout.
The talks, according to BusinessWeek, have not reached fruition. A deal between Apple and Microsoft may mean iPhone owners would automatically get Microsoft's Bing as the main search engine, possibly requiring users to actively change phone settings if they want to search via Google.
As the story notes, Google and Apple (and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft) have increasingly gone head-to-head in a number of different markets, including mobile phones and Web browsers. So far, however, Apple has stayed out of the search market, meaning that it is also free to strike a preferred-vendor deal with another company. It's possible that Microsoft might strike a deal similar to the one it struck with RIM: one day, a Bing icon would simple appear on the device, pushed via a software update.
I can't confirm whether this is true or not; in any case, if the deal goes through, quite a bit will depend on how the Bing preference is hardwired into the Apple OS. If user can easily change the search preferences to Google (or another engine) then this will merely be an annoyance for those who search with Google. If the hooks go deeper... well, the angst may be a bit sharper as well.
Originally posted to AppScout.