In 2020 Microsoft he would have had secret talks with Apple to sell the search engine Bingwith the purpose of replace Google as your default search engine on all Apple devices. A move that came before Bing’s rebirth with OpenAI’s generative AI.
Microsoft wanted to sell Bing to Apple (before the “AI rebirth”)
The indiscretion comes from Bloomberg. Which explains how, from 2013 to 2017, Apple and Microsoft had an agreement that involved the use of Bing as a search engine for manage Siri and Spotlight search results. In 2016, Microsoft had planned to extend this partnership to make Bing the default search engine on Safari on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
However, around the same time, Apple was also negotiating with Google to renew their partnership agreement. Under this agreement, Google paid Apple a commission based on advertising revenue generated from searches performed on Apple devices. In 2016, Apple renewed the agreement with Google, also extending it to searches made via Siri and Spotlight, ending the relationship with Microsoft.
In 2020, however, talks between Apple and Microsoft resumed. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft executives met with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of services, to discuss the possibility of selling Bing to Apple. But without success.
One of the main reasons was concern about the revenue generated by the Google deal. Furthermore, Apple has doubted Bing’s ability to compete with Google in terms of search quality and capabilities.
Microsoft can perhaps today rejoice in the fact that the agreement did not go through. With Bing appearing to have taken on new life with AI. Although Google continues to dominate the online search market.