Will Bing Become Default Search Engine On The iPhone?

Pull up Safari on your iPhone, and what do you see as your search engine? That's right, Google. But "Android Envy" might be making Apple and Microsoft a closer-knit pair, as Business Week reported on Wednesday that the two are discussing replacing Google with Bing.

The report, from typically unnamed sources (though two of them) states that Microsoft and Apple have been discussing the move for weeks. Naturally, anything like this would require a ROM update for the iPhone.

Right now, although you can change the default search engine in Safari away from Google, you can only change it to Yahoo! Thus, even if they added Bing and made it the default, users could easily change it to Google.

Why would Apple make this move? It's obvious that the snarky "Android Envy" comment above has truth in it. One of the two sources said the following:

"Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle."

Additionally, recall that both Apple and Google have purchased mobile ad firms recently (Apple = Quattro Wireless; Google = AdMob).

Therein lies still further intrigue. The source above added that Apple is looking into developing its own search engine, and has a "skunk works" already working on it. He added that "if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it's about buying itself time" (for their own search engine offering).