Apple Considered Buying Bing In 2020 To Replace Google

Apple currently uses Google as the default search engine on iPhone, iPad, and Mac but there was a chance that it might use its own search feature as recently as 2020.

But that wouldn’t involve Apple building its own search engine — rather, it appears Apple considered buying one instead.

The search engine that Apple reportedly had its eye on was Bing, the Microsoft search engine that is used across Windows and its other properties. The buyout ultimately didn’t happen, but Bloomberg reports that it was being discussed just a few years ago as a way to remove Google from the iPhone.

Executives from Microsoft met with Apple’s services chief, Eddy Cue, who brokered the current search engine relationship with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, to discuss the possibility of acquiring Bing, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation was confidential. The talks were exploratory and never reached an advanced stage, they said.

The report adds that there was also the possibility that Microsoft could outbid Google for a default space as the iPhone search engine, but that was earlier.

However, Google and Apple subsequently signed an extension of a deal that has been around since 2002 after Eddy Cue brokered a deal with the search and ad company in 2021. That deal sees Apple receive billions of dollars each year as well as more money from iPhone users who avail themselves of Google’s services.