Analyst: “70 Percent” Chance Apple Builds Own Search Engine
Will Apple have its own search engine in the not-so-distant future? That’s what a leading tech analyst is predicting is likely to happen. Gene Munster, who analyzes Apple for Piper Jaffray, told Business Insider that he believes there is a “70 percent” chance that Apple will build its own search engine in the next five years.
Munster wrote to Business Insider to refute the publication’s earlier opinion that Apple won’t be building a search engine any time soon. Munster gave several reasons why he believes that an Apple search engine is more plausible than not:
“We believe Apple could utilize data unavailable to Google, data generated by the company’s App Store, to create a mobile centric search engine, which would be a unique offering to Google’s search engine.
“An iPhone specific search engine could be a difficult undertaking, but we feel Apple could make a minor acquisition of a search company that has built a web index, like a Cuil, and utilize the index as the base for building its own engine.
“We believe the odds of Apple developing a search engine in the next five years are 70 percent. One hurdle for Apple in developing its own search engine would be generating enough advertiser interest to form a competitive marketplace; however, we believe the rationale for an Apple search product is to protect data rather than generate profit.”
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