In April, The New York Times reported that Samsung was considering replacing Google Search as the default search engine for its Galaxy smartphones with Microsoft’s Bing. Now it seems that the Korean giant has abandoned that idea. Apparently, Samsung has suspended an internal review that was considering switching from Google to Bing for its smartphones. When the original news broke, it was claimed that Samsung was impressed with Microsoft’s efforts to add generative AI to its search engine via Bing Chat. As a result of that report, Google’s stock price dropped 2.5% that day. However, after the publication of that report it was pointed out that Google has what it calls the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA). It basically states that any smartphone company that wants to install the Google Play Store must also set Google Search as the default search engine on their phones.
That said, since Samsung is the world’s largest Android-based smartphone company by far, it’s more than possible that it has a special deal with Google that isn’t available to other manufacturers. For example, Samsung has its own Galaxy Store for downloading apps on its smartphones, something other Android phones with the Google Play Store don’t have. In any case, it seems that Samsung will keep Google Search as the default search engine for its smartphones. Microsoft and its Bing search engine will have to make their way into the mobile space in other ways. It’s already doing this by adding Bing chat services to its Bing mobile app, and it’s also adding AI chat to other mobile app services like its SwiftKey keyboard, Edge browser, and Skype messaging service.
