Apple has been pushing hard to scrub all
traces of Google from its iOS cash cow
(including dropping Google Maps in a
controversial move), but it seems that
Google is willing to pay big lumps of cash
to stay on.
According to analysts at Morgan Stanley,
the Mountain View-based company will
give Apple $1 billion to stay the default
search engine on iOS. Yes, Google is still
the default search provider, even though
the Google branding was removed from
Safari in iOS v4.0.
The wad of cash was much smaller in
2009 – only $82 million. Why the change?
The Google-Apple deal is per device and
iOS devices have multiplied many times
since 2009.
The price per device is going up too - $2
per iOS device in 2009, then $3 in 2011
and $3.2 last year. That number will rise
further according to estimates, reaching
$4 in 2017 with total payments expected
to cross the $2 billion total mark the year
after. Apple gets $0.75 of every dollar
Google earns according to the numbers.
The other big recipient of cash under the
Traffic Acquisition Costs heading is the
Mozilla Foundation, who will be getting
$400 million this year to keep Google as
the default search engine on the Firefox
browser.
The ever-growing Android has Google as
the search provider of choice (naturally),
so Google has a lot to win with Android
gaining market share over iOS. Microsoft
has similar deals for Windows Phone and
BlackBerry devices.
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