Google paid $1 bln to Apple, analyst claims
From online dispatches
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Internet giant Google paid $1 billion to Apple to become its default search engine in 2011, analyst Ben Schachter has said, according to Tecnhobuffalo.com.Google and Apple were rivals in a highly competitive market, but that did not mean they could not "do business on the side," the report said.
Apple reportedly received the sum of $1 billion from Google to set its Safari browser's default webpage to google.com.
The report did not mention whether Google and Apple struck a new deal for year 2012. "Losing an easy $1 billion would hardly do damage to the company’s [Apple's] bottom line,” it said.
Google reportedly would not want to lose a platform like Apple, which has ever-increasing popularity and reach.
Many users have been switching from PCs to iPads in recent years and it has been estimated that iPad usage will top that of PCs in five years, meaning Google could be facing hard times if its agreement is not renewed.
