Scott Galloway talked about this in a recent Pivot Podcast. He predicts it will launch after the US DOJ announces anti-trust actions against Google. If they do it soon, Google will just point to Apple to say "We aren't the only game in town... this $2 trillion dollar company just launched a search engine on a few billion phones/tablets/PCs around the world." They have reason to wait.
There is not guarantee that Apples search engine will succeed. It would be suck if it stuck around just long enough for Google to use it as a fig leaf.
I don't get the antitrust against Google search. You can just click on Bing and start searching there as soon as Bing becomes even slightly better.
On the other hand, you can't "click" on Android and suddenly switch to Android (or from Android to iOS) if Android this year becomes slightly better. It's designed to be a real uphill battle to switch (re-purchase all the media: apps, movies, shows, etc.), unhook imessage, transfer photos out of iCloud photos, etc. etc.
>You can just click on Bing and start searching there as soon as Bing becomes even slightly better.
I think the central problem is that 'getting better' is mostly a function of having more users in the first place because that is the very data that helps Google improve the service, it's probably one of the most simple cases of network effects.
I'm no expert, but it's not just that they dominate the search market, it's that they use that position in less than ideal ways. For example, Google Snippets takes away valuable traffic from sites. Google has also been accused of prioritizing their own results over competitors.
You're conflating topics. I'm saying the cost of switching is trivially low for search engines. The moment Bing becomes better I can switch to it with a "single click". The moment I like something about Android or iOS I can't switch with a "single click".
Whether or not a search engine should be barred from showing snippets is a different topic IMO.
