Is iPhone getting “Bing’ed”?

This Apple vs. Google thing is getting downright weird, and making some strange corporate bedfellows. The worst part? The latest episode in this saga might have the iPhone ditching integrated Google search via Safari.

Here’s what happened: Before the Android phone explosion, Google and Apple were pals. (Google’s Eric Schmidt even sat on Apple’s board of directors as recently as last year.) And the number one enemy of Cupertino had always been Microsoft. This is the stuff of legend. The corporate rivalry inspired countless articles and blog posts, and even spawned a TV movie called “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” which starred Noah Wyle (as Steve Jobs) and Anthony Michael Hall (as Bill Gates).

But things have taken a strange turn lately. Back in the present, the latest buzz has Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer — who has actually laughed at the iPhone and insulted Apple — issuing a compliment about the Cupertino company.

Wha-?

According to The Seattle Times, Ballmer said the following last week in a speech at the University of Washington: “Apple’s done a very nice job that allows people to monetize and commercialize their intellectual property.”

It’s admittedly a short snippet, and it’s not like he’s retracting every negative thing he’s ever said about our favorite device. But this comment has grabbed a lot of attention, as experts are scrambling to figure out if it means Apple really is going to replace Google with the Bing search engine in the next iPhone OS.

Obviously, it makes sense for Apple to ditch Google, since it seems to take the mere existence of Android personally somehow and wants nothing more than to undercut the search giant’s success. As for Microsoft, putting Bing on the iPhone (as a more integrated feature than the Bing iPhone app) would be a huge deal.

Okay, I get it. Corporate envy, competition, uncomfortable alliances — these are nothing new when it comes to the tech sector. But the fact that this might directly mess with my apps or my phone’s functionality? Whoa, that is NOT OKAY.

Thanks to some company acquisitions last year, there are other rumors circulating about Apple pulling the Google Maps app as well. I think I might be slightly less in love with my phone at that point. Am I alone? How would you feel about the loss of Google search or maps on your iPhone?

Via: TUAW