Next year, Apple"s deal with Google for the default position on iOS devices will expire which means that the company is soliciting bids from the big players to see who is willing to pay the most to gain control of this position.
Last week, we saw Mozilla dump Google as the default engine for Firefox and next up, the default search engine for Safari will be up for grabs and it is being reported that Yahoo! and Microsoft are both gunning for this position. With Apple not having its own search engine, it needs to use a third-party for this service which is where Yahoo! and Bing come in to the picture.
Why not Google? Android is the strongest competition to iOS and since Android is run by Google, Apple is helping to boost their bottom line by having Google as the default engine. By taking Google out of the default position, Apple is able to undercut the company"s revenue. How much this will impact Google"s search and advertising business is unknown but with tens of millions of iOS devices currently set to Google, it could be a sizeable hit for the company.
With Google out, that leaves Yahoo! and Bing as the contenders for the spot. Which company is willing to write the biggest check will likely get the default slot for iOS and with so many devices in the wild, whoever wins, will have to pay for the privilege.
Microsoft and Apple have previously worked closely together for web searches too. For Siri and OS X, Bing is the default search engine for those platforms.
Of course, it is worth pointing out that Bing does power Yahoo!"s search engine but deals like this are about advertising impressions that go along with the search result. But, just because Google may lose the default position does not mean you can"t switch back to Google if Bing or Yahoo! get the spot. Apple currently lets you switch between any of the top search engines with iOS, so those who do not like Bing or Yahoo! will still have the option to use Google.
Source: The Information