A report published on January 20, in BusinessWeek, has revealed that Apple and Microsoft have been ‘in talks for weeks’ about the use of Microsoft’s Bing search engine as the default search engine for the popular iPhone; thereby replacing Google search which is the iPhone’s current default engine.

The materialization of Apple-Microsoft talks will not only mark the escalating competitive scenario between Apple and Google, but will also bring about a notable increase Microsoft Bing’s market
-share in the US mobile search space – an area largely dominated by Google which boasts a whopping 95.26 percent share, as against Bing’s 0.59 percent and Yahoo’s 3.78 percent share.

With ex-pals Apple and Google increasingly pitted against each other in the smartphone operating-system arena, the possible Apple-Microsoft tie-up will spell a mammoth shift in the ruthless battle in tech space. According to BusinessWeek, an unnamed ‘insider,’ said: “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle.”

However, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform might just cause a hitch in the company’s likelihood of a deal with Apple – more so as Microsoft itself is supposedly coming up with its own branded “Zune Phone” which will be an iPhone competitor. In case the buzz about Microsoft’s own phone is true, Apple could probably reconsider Bing’s positioning as iPhone’s default engine!