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It’s like you said - most users are not going to care (and will just default to google search anyways),

nope, most people wouldn't be able to tell if they are using Google or Bing.

I saw a person who was using Android tablet and he thought it was the same as Windows on his laptop.
 
If this actually does get terminated by the Justice department, my guess is that Google will end up finding out that they’ve been paying billions of dollars (for x amount of years) only to discover that the customers that are most profitable to their bottom line, are also sophisticated enough to make the one-time change within settings (from Yahoo or Bing) back to Google, thereby resulting in a minimal loss to ad revenue from whomever doesn’t switch the ‘default’ search engine back to Google (and surely not anywhere near the $20+ billion that they pay to Apple each year)
 
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On its quarterly earnings calls, Apple provides informal financial guidance that helps set expectations for investors and Wall Street analysts. On its latest earnings call yesterday, however, Apple mentioned something that it had not before.

applegoogle.jpg

Specifically, Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh said that the company's September quarter revenue outlook was contingent on Apple's revenue-sharing agreement with Google continuing. As noted by Jason Snell at Six Colors, this is seemingly the first time Apple has directly referred to the threat of losing this revenue within its prepared remarks.

Here is what Parekh said, with emphasis added:Google reportedly pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine in Safari across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with a court document revealing that Google paid Apple a whopping $20 billion in 2022 alone.

In August 2024, a U.S. federal judge ruled that Google's default search engine agreement with Apple violated antitrust law. However, the court has not yet issued any remedies, and Google will almost certainly appeal any unfavorable decision.

"I don't really want to speculate on the court ruling and how they would rule and what we would do as a consequence of it," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, on the earnings call.

Article Link: Apple Warns Investors About Risk of Massive Deal With Google Ending
There is always a default search engine, unless you want it to be random. I don't see what could be done differently.
 
The deal with Google brings in a lot of money. Apple will be wanting the deal to continue. Without the deal a continuous guaranteed stream of revenue dries up.
 
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The point is, this money (BILLIONS per year) is used for software development. If / when this goes away, most software will change drastically. And, for example, iOS and MacOS might no longer have free upgrades and browsers like Safari will become paid apps or they will add a lot of advertisements.

Free software doesn't exist. Only paid and subsidised software. And if this Google deals falls away, "subsidised" will become very difficult.
It is used for stock buybacks.
 


On its quarterly earnings calls, Apple provides informal financial guidance that helps set expectations for investors and Wall Street analysts. On its latest earnings call yesterday, however, Apple mentioned something that it had not before.

applegoogle.jpg

Specifically, Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh said that the company's September quarter revenue outlook was contingent on Apple's revenue-sharing agreement with Google continuing. As noted by Jason Snell at Six Colors, this is seemingly the first time Apple has directly referred to the threat of losing this revenue within its prepared remarks.

Here is what Parekh said, with emphasis added:Google reportedly pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine in Safari across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with a court document revealing that Google paid Apple a whopping $20 billion in 2022 alone.

In August 2024, a U.S. federal judge ruled that Google's default search engine agreement with Apple violated antitrust law. However, the court has not yet issued any remedies, and Google will almost certainly appeal any unfavorable decision.

"I don't really want to speculate on the court ruling and how they would rule and what we would do as a consequence of it," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, on the earnings call.

Article Link: Apple Warns Investors About Risk of Massive Deal With Google Ending
$20 billion a year sounds like a lot … until you realize that in Q2 alone, Apple returned $29 billion to shareholders in dividends and buybacks. Not getting that $5B per quarter wouldn’t be ideal, but it’s not disastrous either.
 
Apple’s $20B deal with Google is under threat from antitrust rulings. If it ends, Apple could lose major revenue—but may build its own search engine or find a new partner. Big changes could be coming.
that amount represents something around 5% of revenue. Not that big of a deal.
 
Sitting here wondering how I would feel if I suddenly lost a 20 billion a year handout.
If there are 1.46 billion iphone users in the world, google is paying at least $13 a year for your eyeballs.

FYI, Fortune is saying in a worst case scenario, Apple would "only" lose $12.5 billion a year. I presume it would make up the difference by monetizing its search to non-Google services.

As an Apple user, I hope this goes away. As an Apple stockholder, I have my settings to use anyone but Google and like the easy profits it brings, but Google is evil. Apple is not perfect, but they are the most pro-privacy, pro consumer big tech firm. However, t's hard to turn down a $20 BILLION check!
 
If there are 1.46 billion iphone users in the world, google is paying at least $13 a year for your eyeballs.

FYI, Fortune is saying in a worst case scenario, Apple would "only" lose $12.5 billion a year. I presume it would make up the difference by monetizing its search to non-Google services.

As an Apple user, I hope this goes away. As an Apple stockholder, I have my settings to use anyone but Google and like the easy profits it brings, but Google is evil. Apple is not perfect, but they are the most pro-privacy, pro consumer big tech firm. However, t's hard to turn down a $20 BILLION check!
I have no moral objections whatsoever. I was just personally wondering out loud about how I would feel if someone took my 20 billion a year for the permission to bask they eyeballs on thee.

I probably wouldn't like it all.
 
What are you talking about?

Apple has been taking ~$20 billion a year, from Google, without letting investors know. They labeled it as services revenue to make their services division look more profitable than it is, since it's a "growth area". Now we, and investors, see that it's not and that it was a giveaway from Google, not money they earned from any services.

There have been rumors for years that they were getting money from Google, but not until the discovery phase of Google's trials did was it actually confirmed, and how much. At minimum, it should been labeled as "other".
 
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If this actually does get terminated by the Justice department, my guess is that Google will end up finding out that they’ve been paying billions of dollars (for x amount of years) only to discover that the customers that are most profitable to their bottom line, are also sophisticated enough to make the one-time change within settings (from Yahoo or Bing) back to Google, thereby resulting in a minimal loss to ad revenue from whomever doesn’t switch the ‘default’ search engine back to Google (and surely not anywhere near the $20+ billion that they pay to Apple each year)

That's an interesting speculation. It could be true. However, I suspect Google has the financial talent necessary to accurately assess the value of all of their deals. The CFO under whom those deals were negotiated has a BA in Economics from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton. Wharton is known for being a cut-throat quant school.
 
Makes me wonder what'll come of this. Apple just gonna leave Google the default search for free?

Both Apple and Google have said that Google would have been the choice even without the payment and Google has just been wasting billions every year. I’d really like to see the DoJ fund an investor suit against the Google board for wasting that money, just to get them coming and going.

Really wish Safari gave the option to use any arbitrary engine, not just the 5 or so Apple allows. Kagi is incredible.
AIUI you can add any search engine with just a few lines of JavaScript or JSON.
 
There is always a default search engine, unless you want it to be random. I don't see what could be done differently.
Not necessarily: the address/search bar could function purely as an address bar until you select/“install” a search engine, which is what happens in Firefox if you remove all the search engines from the list.
 
Not necessarily: the address/search bar could function purely as an address bar until you select/“install” a search engine, which is what happens in Firefox if you remove all the search engines from the list.
you can always type URL to use it as address bar today.
 
hard to keep standing for privacy while also being in bed with google. Apple will make their own or find another good partner. It may not matter since AI is taking away google Search.
 
hard to keep standing for privacy while also being in bed with google. Apple will make their own or find another good partner. It may not matter since AI is taking away google Search.
Not at all. Is privacy different or does the internet function differently if one types into the browser google dot com?
 
Both Apple and Google have said that Google would have been the choice even without the payment and Google has just been wasting billions every year. ...
I'm probably going to regret this, but...

It is perhaps worth noting that those initial negotiations would have taken place back in 2007, and neither company were yet the mobile juggernauts that they are today, so the numbers were likely quite a bit smaller at that time... but both had great aspirations, and each clearly recognized certain unique value that the other company could offer.

So, perhaps Google wasn't paying Apple just for a default placement that they were probably going to get anyway... rather, they were paying for something else that only Apple could provide, but that they didn't necessarily want showing up on the official financial records. The question is... what?
 
I'm probably going to regret this, but...

It is perhaps worth noting that those initial negotiations would have taken place back in 2007, and neither company were yet the mobile juggernauts that they are today, so the numbers were likely quite a bit smaller at that time... but both had great aspirations, and each clearly recognized certain unique value that the other company could offer.

So, perhaps Google wasn't paying Apple just for a default placement that they were probably going to get anyway... rather, they were paying for something else that only Apple could provide, but that they didn't necessarily want showing up on the official financial records. The question is... what?
Google's market share was over 70% back in 2007, most likely it paid not to develop Apple's own search engine.
 
Apple has been taking ~$20 billion a year, from Google, without letting investors know. They labeled it as services revenue to make their services division look more profitable than it is, since it's a "growth area". Now we, and investors, see that it's not and that it was a giveaway from Google, not money they earned from any services.

There have been rumors for years that they were getting money from Google, but not until the discovery phase of Google's trials did was it actually confirmed, and how much. At minimum, it should been labeled as "other".
I knew about the $20 billion, but not about the services label. That would seem like a mis-categorization. Where did you find that out?
 
people always rave on about DuckDuckGo but it’s just nowhere near as good as google.
This is from someone who would love to cut the cord from google as well.
 
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