Since its roll out on March 1 in the EU, the Android search choice screen has yet to make an impact on the search market mainly in part to the effect the coronavirus is having on smartphone supply and consumer demand.
Beginning March 1, manufacturers were able to submit builds to Google for approval, but processing smartphones through the manufacturer’s supply chain can take a few weeks before reaching the public.
Even if there was no coronavirus to deal with, the smartphone manufacturing process would result in a bit of a delayed rollout of the search choice screen. But with the pandemic going on, there has been an impact on the length of the delay.
“COVID-19 has impacted mobile phone supply chain and retail sales and so far there doesn’t appear to be any material movement on the Android choice screen yet,” a spokesperson for Info.com, which is set to appear on the search choice screen alongside DuckDuckGo in all 31 EU territories, said.
Yandex, Qwant, PrivacyWall, GMX, Seznam and Bing are among the other search engines that will appear as the fourth option (alongside Google, DuckDuckGo and Info.com) in different EU territories.