Google Phone Could Drive Apple Into Allegiance With Microsoft

rsmiller510 writes "A BusinessWeek report suggests that the Nexus One release marks the latest volley in an escalating war between Google and Apple, one that could force Apple into working more closely with Microsoft. 'When companies start to imitate one another, it's usually either an extreme case of flattery—or war. In the case of Google and Apple, it's both. Separated by a mere 10 miles in Silicon Valley, the two have been on famously good terms for almost a decade. ... Now the companies have entered a new, more adversarial phase. With Nexus One, Google, which had been content to power multiple phonemakers' devices with Android, enters the hardware game, becoming a direct threat to the iPhone. With its Quattro purchase, Apple aims to create completely new kinds of mobile ads, say three sources familiar with Apple's thinking. The goal isn't so much to compete with Google in search as to make search on mobile phones obsolete. ... Some analysts believe the Apple-Google battle is likely to get much rougher in the months ahead. Ovum's Yarmis thinks Apple may soon decide to dump Google as the default search engine on its devices, primarily to cut Google off from mobile data that could be used to improve its advertising and Android technology. Jobs might cut a deal with—gasp!—Microsoft to make Bing Apple's engine of choice, or even launch its own search engine, Yarmis says."

Comments

This Makes Zero Sense

[neoshroom]

Mark my words: Apple will not partner with Bing. The reason for this is simple: Bing is an inferior product. Don't believe me? Using Bing for any length of time evidences this. I'll give you a simple example. Let's say you want the carbon Firefox icon. You search for "carbon firefox."

Here are the results for Google.
Here are the results for Bing.

Now, they share many sites, but out of the links provided more of the Bing results go astray. Bing, for example, decides it's horribly relevant to link you to The Carbon County Chamber of Commerce.

Your assertion that Apple isn't large enough to create their own search engine is also preposterous. How many employees does Yahoo! have? About 14,000. How many employees does Apple have? About 35,000. Apple will not partner with Bing because Bing simply isn't better than Google. Apple would likely create their own search engine before doing so.

As a side-note, that carbon Firefox icon is pretty nice.