Google pays Apple more than $100 million annually for its position as the default Internet search engine on the iPhone, according to a new report. Citing a source familiar with Apple’s operations, Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple receives more than $100 million a year from Google as part of a revenue sharing deal, but that recent deals between the two companies have become increasingly contentious.
According to the source, the original deal between the two companies for Google Maps on the iPhone was reached in just two weeks, while a similar deal for the iPhone 3G, negotiated just a year later, was a six-month negotiation “full of acrimony” as Google wanted access to data generated by Maps users, which Apple did not want to give up. A report from last month indicated that Apple was in talks with Microsoft over the possibility of the latter’s Bing service replacing Google as the default search engine on the iPhone.
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