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by jprete 973 days ago
That’s a good point to being up. Apple’s entire pile of cash is just under three years of Google payments. This tells me Apple’s been spending the money on other things. “Replace Google Search” probably isn’t high on their list of priorities, as opposed to Microsoft who seem really intent at it.
1 comments
jrochkind1 973 days ago
It is pretty amazing to realize Apple's oft-commented upon huge pile of cash could be entirely attributed to google payments...

And to me makes it make sense that a company with enough control over search that they can pay other companies 18 billion a year to maintain that control, may be an antitrust issue. I don't actually know much about antitrust law, but it seems like paying competitors to stay out of your business to maintain your monopoly might run afoul of it.

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robocat 973 days ago
Your argument for control is 180° wrong: Apple has the control and that is why it can demand excessive payment.

I don't understand the stereotypical anti-Google sentiment. Clearly Apple are getting paid an excess amount here because they control the default.

Apple could swap to Bing and few people would notice the difference.

Apple 2022: $99.8 billion profit (over 1 year)

Google Q4 2022: $18.16 billion profit on $76 billion in revenue (over 3 months).

Apple App store profit: The App Store generated US$1.1 trillion in total billings and sales in the App Store ecosystem in 2022, Apple has revealed. More than 90 percent of the billings and sales went to developers and businesses without a commission being taken by Apple. https://itwire.com/it-industry-news/market/apple-s-app-store...

I don't understand the stereotypical anti-Google sentiment. Clearly Apple are getting paid an excess amount here because they control the default.

I use duckduckgo which is backed by Bing. Apple doesn't use Bing because Apple can extract monopoly rents from Google. Who's the bad guy here? 18 billion a year is a lot of money relative to the profits of the companies. For comparison, Apple seems to make more from its searchbox than it does from the App Store (widely regarded as usurous).

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