When it’s business, it appears, there are no alliances. If Shakespeare were alive today, and bereft of decent ideas, perhaps he would pick up his quill pen and write of the feuding turmoil between smartphone families. Well, maybe not. Nevertheless, the ‘battle’ between Google and Apple is heating up with Apple apparently in talks with old foe Microsoft to oust the search engine giant from the iPhone in favor of …Bing. Oh, the intrigue!
The default search engine setting on the iPhone is for Google, but that may change. Google has now launched a smartphone of its own (the Nexus One) that competes with Apple’s baby, and obviously Jobs and Co. aren’t too happy. The current idea at Apple is to joust back at Google by making the default search, Bing. Microsoft would, of course, be thrilled to help their trailing service advance, and Apple would probably see a bigger cut from advertising revenue that Bing would generate.
Several months ago, Microsoft made it clear in the press, that they were ‘in it for the long haul’ regarding Bing. They admitted the fight to top Google would be a long one, but said they would be willing to invest for years if necessary. Right now, Bing only commands about 10% of searches while Google is almost 90%. It’s interesting to note that a little over ten years ago, Apple was in dire financial straits, and was thrown a $150 million lifeline by Microsoft, and now the tables are turned. Even though Apple has had partnerships with Google in the past, now both companies are showing their fangs. And Microsoft might be thrown a substantial bone from Apple that could shave a few years off their battle with Google.
We’ll keep you posted from the battlefield.
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