Apple Planning Search Engine?

Apple has been a spicy topic offline with its new MacBooks, iPhone 3G, and iPod line up. It is also spicing up gossip online; there have been rumors that Apple is planning to build a search engine.

However, the following facts would clarify that Apple is not working on a search engine. Apple's Safari enjoys 6-7% browser market share with Google as their default search engine. Obviously, Apple must be happy with the marketing-based revenue generated on using Google's search engine.
Apple's iPhone is clearly competing with Google's G1. It is rumored that Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, who also happens to be on Apple's board of directors, may leave the board as Android-based G1 goes mainstream. It's been said that Schmidt is not involved with mobile-based strategies.

As per TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, Apple is thinking about improving the search experience on mobile devices and may make it more visual. No search engineer or expert at the industry's biggest organizations confirmed reports of search engineers moving to Apple.

It's possible that Apple might come up with a unique UI for search engines on its mobile devices, but building an entirely new search engine seems to be out of question as of now