It is reasoned that comments from Apple SVP of Services Eddy Cue saying Google’s search is the best and that Apple has no incentive to make its own are probably true, but could also be a measure to try and protect Google from government enforcement.

A rumor has it that Apple is developing its own search engine to compete with Google. This is true, as Apple must create some crawling/ranking software for Siri, Spotlight and such. However, I do not believe they are going to release a proper search engine. The reason for this rumor could be related to the anti-trust lawsuit against Google, and Apple is defending them. The incentives for the deal are too good for Apple, they are getting $15B a year for almost 0 effort.