Samsung has suspended its exploration of a move away from Google’s search engine to Microsoft’s Bing search engine which, after a revamp, now enjoys the AI smarts of Open AI’s runaway conversational chatbot ChatGPT, reports (a subscription may be required) The Wall Street Journal citing internal sources.
“The South Korean tech giant initially deliberated a search-engine switch, thinking that it wouldn’t substantially change the status quo since the majority of Samsung smartphone users don’t use its in-house Internet app, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Most users opt for other browsers including Google Chrome, which also comes preinstalled on Samsung phones, they said,” says the WSJ report.
“But now, Samsung has decided it won’t further internally discuss the matter at this time given concerns over how the switch could be perceived by the market as well as the impact on its wide-ranging business relations with Google, the people said.”
Last month, news broke initiating that the Korean company was exploring a move away from Google Search as Microsoft’s competing product embraced Artificial Intelligence (AI) smarts on a scale that is currently in line with many consumer preferences and the industry-wide trend of jumping on what is being called generative AI.
Google Search has been the default search engine on Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones for over a decade, going as far back as 2010. Given Samsung’s dominance of the smartphone industry worldwide (per reports, it shipped about 260 million smartphones last year) and being the outright leader of Android, Google’s mobile operating system, a walk away from Google Search would’ve been catastrophic to Google’s future.
At Google I/O last week, Google spent over 2 hours of its keynote address parading one AI product after another as it sought to bounce back from the shock of the kind of attention Open AI’s ChatGPT, which has Microsoft’s backing, has managed to attract since its launch late last year. At the annual developer conference, Google’s own direct ChatGPT competitor, Bard, was made available to users around the world after being in closed beta since the start of the year. A number of AI-centred features are also headed to the company’s various products and services including the apps it gets its OEM partners like Samsung to pre-install on Android smartphones.
Just like it has a relationship with Microsoft that has seen it ship its devices with Microsoft apps pre-installed, Samsung has had a long relationship with Google, collaborating with the search giant over the years on multiple products including convincing it to walk away from its own mobile operating system ambitions and collaborations with other tech companies to embrace Android.
Lately, Samsung has stopped using its own Tizen OS on its wearables in favour of Google’s Wear OS where it the two bring the best of both platforms together to offer users a better experience. Samsung has also lent its expertise with the security system Knox to bolster Android Enterprise (from where we get the Android Enterprise Recommended program we keep referencing to from time to time).
