Apple has been close to acquiring Bing: Mark Gurman reports in an article published on Bloomberg, according to which Tim Cook and Satya Nadella in 2020 would have discussed the operation without formalizing it. The intention would have been to replace Google as the default search engine on iPhone, iPad and the other devices of the brand in favor of Bing.
Several times in the past there has been talk of intertwined relationships between Apple and Microsoft, but Google has remained (almost) always the number one option for research in the apple ecosystem. The Mountain View company pays Cupertino several billion dollars every year to ensure a privileged position among the search engines offered on Safari: a figure that has grown strongly over time:
$100 million in 2010
$1 billion in 2014
$9 billion in 2018
$15 billion in 2021
$18-20 billion in 2022
Google is currently defending itself in court against charges of monopoly and abuse of dominant position in the online search sector. The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Google of implementing an anti-competitive strategy by entering into exclusive contracts with smartphone makers to “ensure the default status of its general search engine and to prohibit Google’s counterparts from dealing with its competitors.”
Apple was involved in the trial because Google’s “monopoly” within its devices would represent clear evidence for the prosecution of the anti-competitive behavior of the Mountain View company. Eddie Cue, SVP of Apple, was also recently heard as a witness, who explained how the choice of the search engine on the brand’s devices had fallen on Google simply because it is the best.
The idea of using Bing on the iPhone would therefore have been shelved in order not to lose the revenue generated by the agreement with Google. In addition, in Cupertino there would always have been the fear that Bing could not be up to it.
Mark Gurman believes that if the acquisition of Bing had gone through, Apple would not have used the search engine directly, rather it would have “extracted” the technology for the development of a proprietary solution.
