[TallTalesOrTrue]

Google not only makes money off of Apple products but pretty much any product from where one can search. That includes all the android devices as well. Which makes you wonder why are they pushing android at all. People are used to using Google so no matter what OS, they are going to use it anyways Why spend billions of dollars developing and defending it?

[bishnu]

Google doesn't just make money off both iOS and Android - they make MUCH MORE money off iOS than Android, at least twice as much. [1]

But they don't control iOS, so all Android is is a hedge in case Apple tries to disrupt mobile search somehow. I honestly wonder if there's any tension at Google between the search team and the mobile team, since at the moment Google is flogging something directly against the interests of their cash cow (search).

[1] http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/21/google-23rds-of-our-mobile-sea...

[brudgers]

Microsoft is Google's direct competitor in regards to mobile search...or search in general for that matter. As for Apple, I don't see them entering search because search, in general, suffers from the level of curation Apple tends to association with its brand.

[bishnu]

That and software-as-a-service just isn't Apple's business model. They just want to sell you stuff.

[molmalo]

I think that having their own mobile os lets them keep the status quo. If apple changed google for bing, even when a lot of people would change back to google search, i bet that a big percentage would simply use the default (think about ie8). Also, it lets them refine and make more relevant their search results, collect geodata for other services (transit for example), expand their services, etc. its not like th ey are mother theresa. And above all, it helps them expand their core business, letting every device maker use a smartphone os that doesnt suck, all with google as default search engine.