Google Paid $1bn to Keep Search Bar on iPhone
- Friday, January 22nd, 2016
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Google paid $1bn (£697m) to Apple back in 2014 in order to keep its search bar in a prominent place on the iPhone, transcripts from court proceedings in Oracle Corps copyright lawsuit against Google have revealed.
The transcript, which also revealed how much Google has made from its Android operating system, showed that Google has an agreement with Apple that sees it sharing ad revenues generated through Apple devices with the iPhone maker.
There have been rumours regarding the circumstances behind Googles presence on the iPhone, its supposed competitor, for many years, but both companies have refused to comment, both in the past and in the light of the new information disclosed in court.
The revenue-sharing agreement paints Apple CEO Tim Cook in a poor light after he criticised Googles advertising as an intrusion of privacy, given that Apple benefits financially from the same revenues, while also demonstrating the lengths Google will go to in order to keep people from using alternative search engines.
One Google witness questioned during pretrial information apparently said that “at one point in time the revenue share was 34 per cent”, although it isnt clear from the transcript whether this is the amount kept by Google or paid to Apple. Both Googles lawyer and Apple apparently tried to have this information stricken from the record and sealed.