Rumors are circulating around on the net that Microsoft’s Bing might soon be replacing Google as the default search engine of the iPhone. There’s certainly no confirmation, but this speculation does fit with prior reports of talks between Apple and Microsoft.

There are apparently also some sources who are saying that Apple and Microsoft are simply discussing adding Bing as a search engine option on the iPhone rather than having it replace Google.

There’s been speculation around Google’s future on the iPhone since last year when the first public spat broke out between the companies over the Google Voice app for the iPhone. Android’s continued gains in market share only highlight Google’s direct competition with Apple, and the fact that so many core iPhone apps, including search and maps, are controlled by Google, has been a sore point with Apple. From that post:

Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features.

But Google was rumored to be paying Apple $100 million a year for the search rights to iPhone, along with the ability to serve search ads. Apple would likely have stuck with them unless Microsoft was willing to pay as well, and it certainly wasn’t a lock that Google Search would be removed from the iPhone.

There were rumors yesterday that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would attend the WWDC event on June 7 to announce Visual Studio development for the iPhone, although they were quickly retracted. Our sources on this are independent of that story.
We’ll have to wait till we get more info on the story.

Source: Techcrunch.