Steve Jobs: Bye-bye Google?

Steve Jobs: Bye-bye Google?
January 20, 2010 - 7:04 pm
Brian Caulfield is a senior editor in the Silicon Valley bureau of Forbes

When Apple and Google fight Microsoft could win, and AT&T might lose. That's Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner's take Wednesday on reports Apple may bump Google in favor of Microsoft's Bing search service for the iPhone.

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"Structurally, Microsoft and Google pose similar threats to Apple, but Google with the budding success of Android an Chrome, represents a more immediate danger," Yair wrote in a note to investors. "If so, Apple may at least need to contemplate the possibility that the enemy of its enemy might be its friend, even if that special someone is, gasp, Microsoft."

The result: Microsoft might be able to push its way onto the iPhone. It has already displaced Google as the search engine on Verizon's handsets in a deal worth $500 million. So Microsoft has no need to pay stupid money: "We believe MSFT will not grossly overpay," Yair writes.

The surprise loser in this: AT&T. "This move highlights the loss of control over its own customer base that the iPhone has brought," Yair wrote.