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.Data Apple
collects about users from its vaunted iPhone is so valuable that the company
must build a special search engine just to keep Google from gleaning insight
from that data, analysts say.
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.
Google is currently the
default search engine on the iPhone, which has tens of millions of users.
Pairing the leading search engine—65 percent in the United
States, more share abroad—with one
of the most popular smartphones on the planet made good business sense.
However, Google has
increasingly encroached on Apple's mobile turf, offering the Android operating
system and several mobile applications.
Google's Nexus One resembles the iPhone so much that Apple sued Nexus One maker HTC for patent infringement. Google took
the battle up a notch last November by wooing AdMob, whose in-application ads proved successful on the
iPhone, with a $750 million purchase bid.
While that deal has yet to
receive regulatory approval, industry experts said it would give Google
unprecedented access to the works of Apple's App Store, which Google could use
to buoy the Nexus One and future Android devices.
As the search provider for the
iPhone, Google also 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.
"We believe Apple could utilize
data unavailable to Google, data generated by the company's App Store, to
create a mobile centric search engine, which would be a unique offering to
Google's search engine," Munster wrote.
Apple lacks the experience and
engineering wherewithal to build a large, scalable search engine. There are
alternatives to Google such as Microsoft Bing, which was rumored to replace Google on the iPhone. With Google the default search service on Apple's newly released iPad, it
seems unlikely that Apple will in fact replace Google with Bing or anything
else on the iPhone.
But Munster said Apple
could buy a search startup with a Web index, such as Cuil, using its index as
the seed for its own search engine. Mobile search startup Taptu would also be a
good possibility for Apple because it focuses its index on touch-enabled
Websites.
Apple would then have to
stimulate enough advertiser interest to make a viable search product work for
it.
While Apple excels at
marketing new products, it is not a digital advertising provider. The company
did buy AdMob rival Quattro Wireless, but the company has yet to reveal
what its intentions are for those assets.
Still, Munster said
protecting valuable consumer data and not profit would be the point for Apple's
mobile search engine.
"The data generated on
the iPhone OS platform must become an increasing priority for Apple and we
believe the company has the resources to develop its own products in both maps
and search in the next five years," Munster said.
He added that Apple could
entice enough major advertisers and local resellers like ReachLocal to use the
Apple search platform to make a meaningful market place and potentially operate
a search product at break even.
IDC analyst
Hadley Reynolds added that local search is the initial killer app for mobile,
noting that the Quattro ad platform could make for an attractive environment
for advertisers, particularly when paired with Taptu's touch-screen approach to
search.
Meanwhile, iPhone apps from
Google and Bing are still delivering long lists of links, which are hard to
deal with in small screen real estate. Moreover, these apps do not have access
to the data that Apple has piling up in its iTunes Store and on its devices,
Reynolds told eWEEK.
"The next-generation
services will be much more touch-enabled than what Google and Bing are offering,
and they will take users to sites that offer the most attractive info
consumption models to their audiences," Reynolds added.
"Apple is in an inside
position to tap into the current pent-up demand for better mobile search, and
add a new competitive differentiation from other search providers and device
makers."
| | Reader Comments: Apple May Build a Search Engine to Shield iPhone Data From Google | | >>> Post your comment now!
| | A user comment on this article"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... Posted At: 04-09-10 By: Notluob Tnilc | | | | | | Uh, Huh...If this was really an issue for Apple, they could just just spoof browser headers when Safari accesses Google properties on iPhones to return... Posted At: 04-09-10 By: FredTheWonderDog | | | | | | A user comment on this article"If Apple builds its own search engine, it can shield iPhone customer information from Google."
Wouldn't it be nice if they developed a method to... Posted At: 04-07-10 By: Anonymous | | | | | | Why wait?Apple could just buy Yahoo and they would have the search expertise they need, it would require some effort but Yahoo is not as expensive now and... Posted At: 04-06-10 By: Geoffster | | | | | | Seriously iPhone vs Windows Phone 7?Response to @T.Burnett
Get your head out of your butt and get your facts straight before confusing others. Microsoft confirmed that "Windows Phone 7... Posted At: 04-06-10 By: techieg | | | | | | egglsenmarten@yahoo.innice article
[url=http://www.buzzle.com/articles/automated-forex-trading-system-does-automated-forex-trading-work.html]Automated Forex... Posted At: 04-06-10 By: egglsen marten | | | | | | A user comment on this articleYour comment is laughable. Apple steals from other companies??? Are you kidding. Everyone steals from everyone but if you look at what Google and... Posted At: 04-05-10 By: T. Burnett | | | | | | >>> Post your comment now! | | | | | |
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