Apple Selling iPhones on Verizon May Be Good For Google

I was going to say that having the iPhone on Verizon is a good thing for Google largely.  Why would that be?  Would it not mean that there will be less Android phones like the Droid or the Galaxy devices sold to run on Verizon's network?

Here's why it's good but it could be turn bad really quickly.

Right now, some of Android devices being sold by Verizon are using Bing (including the Fascinate) as the default search engine.  Meanwhile, as far as we know, the iPhone's default search engine is still Google.  And while on the surface, Google wants Android sales to continue to go up or hold its own against the iPhone, there is no revenue going to Google if users are searching via Bing on Android.

So, selling less Android devices but more iPhones on Verizon might be a good thing for Google.

Unless one or more of the following happens.

Apple has a contract with Microsoft to use Bing as the default search engine for iPhones running on Verizon.  

Second, Apple plans to bypass mobile search and use Siri as the default search gateway for just about everything.  After all there was a reason why Apple spent $200 million to buy Siri to begin with.

And I wholeheartedly believe that Apple will try to disrupt traditional search in a big way.  And not just on mobile.

A third but much more unlikely scenario is that Microsoft pays Apple to rid the iPhone of Google entirely.  That, like Apple's Siri plan, would definitely hurt Google big time in the long run  And this may be something that Steve Jobs is quite open to if there are enough trucks in the world to move all that money to Cupertino from Redmond.