Stewart Alsop, veteran venture capitalist, ex-tech journalist and Apple watcher, says that Apple is developing a smart search architecture and is embedding its newly acquired Siri technology into all its devices and content.
Siri was purchased by Apple in April. TechCrunch speculates that Apple paid $200 million.
Not exactly a "search" engine, Siri has been characterized as an "intelligent agent" which produces results without a query.
Alsop expects that the next product from Apple will be television.
We spoke with him at the All Things Digital conference. During his on-stage chat, Apple CEO Steve Jobs denied that Apple was creating a search engine.
On his own iPad, Alsop says the device is "full function product for a kid," not for an adult.
Update: Here's the take on Siri and Apple by Jemima Kiss at The Guardian.