Andy Atkins-Kruger thinks so:
http://searchengineland.com/is-apple-is-about-to-launch-a-new-global-sea...
I think Apple would like to do it, and they are slowly exploring a way to go about it since they would like to cut their reliance on Google (and maybe for revenge.) But there is a big leep from indexing and ranking on page factors in a directory and actively crawling the web and trying to rank both on page and off page factors. MS learned this with their search engine.
Read this earlier and thought it was just blog filler.
Would Apple like to get in to search? Yeah maybe - however I doubt they would be stupid enough to just pile in toe to toe with google copying everything that has gone before. However I just don't see that the aquisition of Chomp is an indicator of this at all. There is a massive difference between being able to sort your own database of apps, all of which have completed the required fields and all of which feed you all the quality signals you need and trying to use that for the web. There is some cross over, but it's largely the easy stuff.
I'm not buying it either. Apple would love to have their own search engine, but it will take years before any engine is up to the quality Apple demands. Besides Google is paying Apple to be the default search.
I guess it makes sense for them to do it, then have it as defauly on iphones and ipads. Then sell mobile ads.