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Google Pays Apple $3 Billion Per Year To Remain On the iPhone, Analyst Says (cnbc.com)
In a note to investors on Monday, Bernstein analyst A.M. Sacconaghi Jr. said Google is paying Apple billions of dollars per year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and iPads. "The firm believes that Google will pay Apple about $3 billion this year, up from $1 billion just three years ago, and that Google's licensing fees make up a large bulk of Apple's services business," reports CNBC. From the report: "Court documents indicate that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014, and we estimate that total Google payments to Apple in FY 17 may approach $3 billion," Bernstein analyst A.M. Sacconaghi Jr. said. "Given that Google payments are nearly all profit for Apple, Google alone may account for 5% of Apple's total operating profits this year, and may account for 25% of total company OP growth over the last two years."
My guess is google is making a nice profit from this... And you don't go around gambling with you golden egg.. Especially, not on the mobil market which is and has been in huge growth..
If bing got the traffic google has they might be able to improve search results and suddenly google might have a real competitor... That is a HUGE risk, 3B/yr is probably not that bad to offset any chance of real competition.