(LEAD) (MWC 2010) Google's partnership with Apple remains stable: Google VP

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By Lee Youkyung
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- Amid market rumors that Apple Inc. may no
longer adopt Google Inc.'s search engine for the iPhone, Google's vice president
said Tuesday that its relationship with Apple remains firm.

"Apple is a very valuable partner," Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering
at the Mountain View, California-based company, told reporters in Barcelona,
Spain. "We have no reason to believe that this is going to change as it is highly
profitable for both companies."
Gundotra's comment came amid market rumors that Apple may use Microsoft Corp.'s
Bing as the default search engine for its iPhone in place of Google, whose own
Android operating system is gaining traction among handset makers, leading market
watchers to speculate that Google may be positioning itself to compete against
Apple's iPhone in the smartphone segment.
"We don't want to comment on those rumors," Gundotra added.
While the release of new mobile operating systems is a positive development for
Google as it could fuel the growth of the mobile Web industry, the mobile
platform market is expected to become increasingly crowded, making it difficult
for developers to write applications for all available platforms, he said.
"It is hard though to be excited about yet another new platform," he said when
asked to comment on Bada, the new operating system developed by Samsung
Electronics Co., the world's second-biggest handset maker. Samsung Electronics
showcased its first smartphone based on its own Bada system at this year's Mobile
World Congress in the Spanish city.
Google, which lost ground to local search engine operators in South Korea, may
get another chance in Asia's fourth largest economy, as Web users migrate to
mobile devices from desktop computers.
"We will continue to try to improve our products to make them more compelling for
Korean users and we believe we have innovations for mobile that will help us," he
said.
ylee@yna.co.kr
(END)

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