Over the past year, Apple has quietly assembled search assets that could threaten to Google. That’s a bold statement of course, but it’s based on one big factor: Apple’s ownership of the user touch point that positions its own apps as default.

We’re talking Apple Maps, Siri, Spotlight Search, and default search in Safari. Though Maps still has a black eye from its technical deficiencies at launch (mapgate), it’s gotten a lot better. 61 percent of U.S. iPhone owners use it (Comscore).

“Apple has quietly created this local search behemoth, almost in full view but no one has been paying attention to it,” said Andrew Shotland, at BIA/Kelsey NEXT.  Shotland was first to notice this trend, and has been tracking it closely.

His full session video is below. An interesting look at an erstwhile unrecognized force, slowly building in Cupertino.