WASHINGTON, D.C.: Apple was never serious about replacing Google with Microsoft's Bing as the default search engine in Macs and iPhones, but kept the possibility open as a 'bargaining chip' to extract bigger payments from Google, a Microsoft executive testified on Wednesday in the biggest US antitrust trial in a quarter-century.

'It is no secret that Apple is making more money on Bing than Bing does,' Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft's chief of advertising and web services, said in US District Court in Washington. The comment drew a laugh from the courtroom. Parakhin was describing Microsoft's years of futility trying to supplant Google on Apple devices.