Google Paying 100M Annually for Default Search Rights?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

google_iphone

If taken in a vacuum 100 million dollars is a tremendous amount of money.

If taken as a part of Apple’s nearly 16 billion in last quarter revenues it is simply a flash in a pan, a molehill of a mountain, or a drop of water in a lake. That said, this rumored 100M has no associated costs.

The idea that Apple is paid at all to not develop their own search is amazing in its own right, who would wish to go head on with Google in a field they not only revolutionized but own and would be difficult to unseat? Think of all the people you know, how many of them don’t use Google instinctively as if they were born searching that way? We know longer say I will conduct a search, more often than not we say, “I’ll Google it”.

While just speculation it seems as if Apple might now want more, talks over the Maps app that runs natively on the iPhone seem to be a sticking point between the two companies and rumors that Bing is being considered as the default search engine as well as Microsoft providing map support have been growing in the last month.

Google and Apple seem to need each other but are unhappy with the relationship. Google once, for all intents and purposes, held a spot on Apple’s Board of Directors now they not only develop their own Mobile OS but are producing their own smart phone, The Nexus One.

It is certainly a testament to the strength of the iPhone that Google knows that it needs to have its services available, the mobile apps are released the moment new services arrive, as witnessed yesterday with the release of Google Buzz.

There is nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, it is simply a matter of whether or not these two will remain friendly as they start stepping into each others markets.

Apple-Iphone-Google-Maps