Google will pay Apple nearly $3 billion this year to remain as the default search engine on iOS devices, US-based research and brokerage firm Bernstein has said.
According to a note to investors on Monday, Google has increased the amount this year — from $1 billion three years ago to $3 billion this year — and Google’s licensing fees make up a large bulk of Apple’s services business.
“Court documents indicate that Google paid Apple $1B in 2014, and we estimate that total Google payments to Apple in FY 17 may approach $3B,” CNBC quoted analyst A.M. Sacconaghi Jr. as saying.
“Given that Google payments are nearly all profit for Apple, Google alone may account for five per cent of Apple’s total operating profits this year, and may account for 25 per cent of total company OP growth over the last two years,” he added.
Apple’s iOS devices contribute about 50 percent to Google’s mobile search revenue, Sacconaghi noted.
The wait for Android O is likely to end on August 21 when Google might unveil what the ‘O’ actually stands for in Android 8, reports said on Monday.
Google had released the very last Android O Developer Preview (version 4) recently and the major software update would start with the Pixel line-up of smartphones.
However, Google has not made it clear whether it will also unveil the Pixel 2 smartphones alongside as well.
“Android O release scheduled for the week of 8/21, ‘most likely on the 21st itself’,” 9to5google quoted famous leakster Evan Blass as saying.
Update to Android 8.0 is expected to introduce a new picture-in-picture mode, new notification dots to the Operating System (OS), and add improvements to Bluetooth audio playback.
Recently-launched premium smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ and HTC U11 are expected to see the software updates before the end of this year.
Around 85 per cent if Android devices used, according to the latest numbers, have not upgraded to Android Nougat that was released last year.
IANS
