Having Google as the default search engine on Safari in your iOS device means a lot of money trading hands. And despite Apple and Google being fierce competitors if someone is paying you up to $1 billion just to allow their service to be used on your devices, it’s hard to say no.
Financial analyst Scott Devitt from Morgan Stanley, is reported by Tech Crunch shwoing the amount of money Google gives Apple for being their default search engine on Safari on all iOS devices could be $1 billion for the next year. It seems that the price is calculated on the number of units sold. From 2011 to 2012 the charge per unit went from $3 to $3.2, and for this year and the next the estimate is a marginal increase going from $3.3 per unit in 2013 to $3.5 per unit in 2014.
Of course, this rate can go up or down depending on how well Android devices, Samsung in particularly, are going to do this year and the next. And companies paying for search engine defaults is nothing new. Google also pays Mozilla for being their default search engine, estimated to give them $400 million for 2014. Meanwhile Microsoft also has deals setup with Nokia and BlackBerry to use Bing as their default search engines.
