Bing is so bad Apple says there's no 'price in the world that Microsoft could offer us' to ditch Google on the iPhone

Bing Logo on an iPhone
(Image credit: Getty Images / NurPhoto)

Apple famously does pretty well out of a deal that makes Google the default Safari search engine on the iPhone and other platforms with the company receiving $26 billion as part of the deal recently. Google isn't the only game in town, of course, but Apple is far from impressed with the competition.

Google has been ruled as a monopolist in the United States due to its grip on the world of search, and its deal with Apple is once again in the spotlight. Microsoft's Bing had previously been touted as a potential replacement for Google, but Senior VP of Services Eddy Cue has made it clear that it never really stood a chance.

In fact, there's nothing that Microsoft could do to make Apple switch to Bing, Cue has admitted — not even signing the whole company over.

"They could give us the whole company.”

Given Cue's claims, it's little surprise that Google has found itself on the receiving end of a monopolist ruling. Windows Central notes that Cue recently said that he didn't believe that "there’s a price in the world that Microsoft could offer us" to make Bing the default Safari search engine. He went on to drive the point home, saying that the stance wouldn't change even if "they offered to give us Bing for free. They could give us the whole company.”

Apple did put Bing through its paces before coming to that decision but found its search results lacking, leaving the company with little alternative but to stick with what has served it so well for years.

The additional $26 billion on Apple's bottom line probably didn't hurt, either.

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Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.