iPhone News Updated

Apple: When Will They Build Their Own Mobile Search Engine?

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster writes today that there is a 70% chance that Apple will develop its own search engine within five years. “We believe the company needs to develop its own search technology to protect the data generated on the iPhone,” he contends. “We believe Apple could utilize data unavailable from ,Google, data generated by the company’s App Store, to create a mobile centric search engine.”

Munster figures the company could start by making a minor acquisition of a search startup like Cuil, and then use the index as the base for building its own search engine.

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Two new eBay apps on iPhone, another on way for iPad

EBay is busy, busy, busy on the iPhone and iPad fronts.

Today, it unfurled iPhone applications — one for sellers, the other for classified ads. Both are free. (A third app, for iPad, is expected on April 3, when Apple’s new tablet arrives.)

The new apps are part of an aggressive push by eBay to ride the iPhone wave, and other mobile devices, for that matter.

“We think this will be a huge boon for casual sellers to list their goods on iPhone in less than a minute,” says eBay spokesman Jim Larkin.

How big? This year, the e-commerce company expects $1.5 billion in total value of all items sold over mobile devices, compared with $600 million in 2009. Most of eBay’s mobile-related sales are via iPhone, though the service is also available on Android and BlackBerry. One item is purchased every two seconds on eBay.

The company’s original iPhone app, for buyers, launched in June 2008. It has been downloaded 8 million times.

By Jon Swart
[Thanks: http://content.usatoday.com]