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Apple Demands $9 Billion From Google For Default Search On iOS (neowin.net)
A new report from Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall suggests that Apple may be demanding $9 billion from Google to have its search engine as the default in Safari on iOS. This is a steep increase to last year's estimated $3 billion licensing costs and $1 billion licensing costs in 2014. Hall suggests that Apple may even increase the costs to $12 billion in 2019. Neowin reports: It's unclear if Google's supplanting Microsoft as the default search provider for Siri and Spotlight last year is responsible for the purported price hike from Apple, though it may, at least partially, explain the sudden jump. The other explanation could be that previous estimates of the value of the agreement between the two tech giants were undervalued, given that apart from the $1 billion figure from 2014, we don't really have any hard evidence pertaining to the actual sum of these payments. Hall does indicate that "Apple is one of the biggest channels of traffic acquisition for Google' and despite the high cost, it is quite likely that Google will agree to pay the increased sum."
Safari also runs on iOS. There are like literally a billion of the most highly prized users on earth on that platform.
The move to any other search product, service would be an impressive branding win if that default search change was made.
What is it really worth not letting another search service get that bounce?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
If anyone knows how many mac users there are
uh... it's Safari on iOS, meaning Apple mobile devices.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Total iPhone units sold between 2007 and 2017 worldwide is 216.76 million. So not literally a billion; in fact, the article is specifically about iOS, so we can leave out macs. An iPhone will stay in use for about 5 years so let's assume that half of those 216 million devices is still using Safari and will get the search provider pushed. That's 9 billion for 100 million users, or USD 90 per IOS user. Assume I made a mistake and it would only amount to a third of that per user. I would still be worried if Google would pay my phone manufacturer that for providing me ads.
Total iPhones sold in fiscal year 2017 were 217 million. In February 2017, Apple had 1.3 billion active devices, so 7 USD/user.
Fair point. I use "mac users" as it's a lot quicker to type than "pretentious hipster pansies".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
A search engine that finds results again. Not just what was not deranked.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Username checks out
Sure, Apple crunched their numbers and they know that default search engine is worth more than $9 billion to Google. But if Apple is forced to go to Bing, or worse, implement its own search engine complete with data centers, it will instantly become the laughingstock of the entire internet. After all, crawling back to Microsoft after Bill Gates made Steve Jobs grovel on TV for a $200 million investment. It just doesn't get funnier than that.
If Apple doesn't offer Google by default, it will end up losing way more than $9 billion in sales from customer defections. Go ahead Google, you can easily afford the downside risk. Let Apple learn by doing.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Right. Lets for the sake of not having this argument go for a figure thats about half of that (I'm being generous to the "devices in china" argument.), we're still at about 750 million. The claim about "only half" uses safari kind of suggests a non iphone user. Everyone uses safari on their phone. Or at least almost everybody. There really isn't much in the way of alternatives.
Now, theres an estimate that google makes about $10 per user in profit per year ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/t... )
By my reckoning that'd make $7.5 bil the break-even figure.
The price being asked by apple here is a bit steep! I can certainly understand their imperative here, but it seems like Google would have a good case to say its not worth the price, especially with Apple blocking all of googles tracking bullshit.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
The title is stated as fact what the summary clearly states is just a guestimate. Amazing how pretty much every thread here so far has missed that and is discussing this like the title is 100% fact.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Google's paying at most approximately $10 per user for a default setting that most users will probably use for the lifetime of the device.
On the other hand, Frankly: MANY of these users are Google users before they are Apple users, and they WANT and EXPECT the default search to be a Google search for effective search results, not a search on a substandard service such as Excite, Yahoo, Jeeves, InfoSeek, Bing, etc.
Perhaps Google should be charging Apple a licensing fee of about $20 per device for the privilege of using their search engine with a built-in addressbar lookup feature on iOS.
An iPhone will stay in use for about 5 years
Wtf you smoking? I've been using my same iPhone for 8 years.
Even when people are done with it, they may sell their old one used, and other people buy used.
so let's assume that half of those 216 million devices is still using Safari
Apple is not paying Google for NEW iPhones.... The charge is for essentially All iOS Users. Even if its only 216 million phones for 5 years; Your assumption leads to = 216 million phones/year X 5 years is still more than 1 Billion phones, and the number of new phones sold every year has been more than the number of old phones that are replaced or stop being used every year throughout the life of the product ----- the number of devices is already more than 1 Billion and not decreasing.
You have a point there. I was an Android user before I was an iOS user, and one of the reasons I made the switch is because I could use most of the Google services I was accustomed to on my iOS device.
If Apple starts shooting my search requests over to Bing (and let's face it, Microsoft is the only other company with a search engine would would be willing to write Apple a ten digit check), because of a licensing spat, that's going to become one less reason I'll be willing to get a shiny new iPhone once they come out.
That's 9 billion dollars wasted om arbitrary bullshit that could have been used to make the world a better place for individuals access to food shelter and water and clothing. 9billion dollars blackholed into trivial conceptual nonsense. Oh our poor retarded business leaders. They won't stop until everything has been made pointless and counter productive to a healthy autonomous population.
Do you realize how dangerous it is to put ALL your information into Google's hands? All it takes is a simple "request for information" request by the government (U.S. or EU or China), and Google hands-over everything they know about you. Which you conveniently provided them.
I prefer to divide my usage across multiple companies, so no one place has my entire browsing history.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall