I wasn’t aware Android phone makers could choose the default search engine. Is that true across the globe or only in the EU? Also if you look at global market share of smartphone manufacturers, only Samsung is competitive with Apple. Samsung is closest to Apple in the US market too, but it isn’t really close.
The other piece of info we don’t have is did Apple have fat offer letters from other search engines or was Apple serious about making their own search engine, thus another competitor to Google’s core business and their ad revenue stream.