I seriously doubt Apple would move to Bing by default, even if there were some short term monetary gain. Using a subpar/cluttered search interface is so far off from their brand image.

I find it 10x more likely Apple would suddenly find the motivation to make their own search engine if forced to end their deal with Google.

(They say they wouldn't under any circumstance, but seems to be posturing to me)

Regardless, it's clear getting paid Billions to give people the default they'd choose anyway is a good deal for them.

I wonder who at Google negotiated this, because the terms seem very bad for them. They only make sense if the premise was to prevent Apple from starting a competitor