[bobthepanda]

The other thing is that it's not clear what differentiation, if any, Apple could possibly want to target in Search.

Apple Maps is sometimes nicer to use than Google Maps, but also was developed because at one point Google refused to give Apple turn-by-turn navigation, which would make it hard to sell iPhones as a phone with equal GPS capabilities as Android. There isn't really a search function that Apple needs and does not get via Google.