Epic Battle Balakov via Creative Commons/Flickr.
Seems like just yesterday that Google and Microsoft began to lock horns over search. Now Apple might join the fray and try to develop and internal engine for mobile search.
Currently, Google is the default search application for the iPhone and now iPad. This wins the company a lot of extra cash. It also gives them discrete insight into what mobile searchers are looking for, all the better to improve their algorithms.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there is a 70 percent chance Apple will roll out a mobile search engine tailored for its iPhone within the next five years. As the search provider for the iPhone, Google sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones. This competitive advantage has not gone unnoticed by Apple. Building its own iPhone-centric search engine would help Apple shield Google from its App Store data, Munster said in a March 30 research note.
Apple’s obviously aware of the competitive advantage they’re giving their onetime frenemy, and increasing adversary, but another five-year window is quite some time to recover from.
Apple did buy mobile ad network Quattro Wireless to give them a running start but has made no mention of what they plan to do with the company.
As Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said at the time of that reported $275 million purchase:
You can’t keep squeezing more and more service revenue out of consumers. You can only grow so fast that way. There is a belief on both parties’ part that there is an opportunity for big growth in revenue coming from mobile ad and they want to be there to take advantage of it.
Still, even with an ad network in place, creating successful search to pair it with is a difficult nut to crack. Just ask Cuil. Fortunately for Apple they have the market lead over Google in mobile devices.
The question is whether entering the search game will distract them from it.
