Microsoft reportedly discussed a possible sale of Bing search engine to Apple in a meeting in 2020, says a new report by news agency Bloomberg. The agreement would have made Bing the default search engine on Apple iPhone models, therefore, replacing Google, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple's top brass did not go ahead with a deal because of the money that it earns from Google. It was also concerned that Microsoft Bing may not be able to compete with Google in terms of "quality and capabilities", the report added. The talks between Apple and Microsoft were "exploratory" and never reached an advanced stage.
To recall, Microsoft introduced Bing search engine in 2009 to rival Google. However, Bing never gained market share in a meaningful way with Google dominating among all search engines. Microsoft Bing accounts for less than 10 per cent of searches.
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Both the tech giants are embroiled in the government’s lawsuit against Google, with executives from both companies testifying at the ongoing trial, Bloomberg report added.
According to a class-action lawsuit from last year, the iPhone maker has an agreement with search engine behemoth Google to not get involved in the search engine business. The lawsuit said that the agreement between the firms violates the US antitrust laws. It also mentioned that iPhone devices will continue to offer Google as the default option in Safari and Google has an agreement with Apple to share profits. Cupertino-based Apple is said to be paid around $8-12 billion per year from Google for the same purpose.
The exact amount that Google pays to Apple is unknown, but the lawsuit noted that it makes multi-billion-dollar payments annually.
A report by The Verge says that Apple is believed to take in upwards of $20 billion annually as part of the arrangement that secures Google’s position as the default search engine on both iOS and iPadOS.
The CEO of DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search product, was quoted as saying recently that it “takes too many steps” to switch the iPhone’s default. In reality, it’s fairly trivial and requires just a few taps in the settings menu — but this goes to show how rarely most consumers ever deviate from the default, the report added.