Last week, as part of the US Department of Justice investigation, documents were released that showed Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to retain the search partnership.
This is almost 20% of Apple’s total operating profit for the year.
It’s never a good idea for a company to be so reliant on a single partnership or client.
It distorts incentives, is high risk and sometimes, as in Apple’s case leaves a company blind to other opportunities it could be pursuing.
On top of it all, Apple’s search partnership with Google trades their customer’s privacy for search $ kickbacks.
Based upon all this, it should be time for Apple to end this partnership and pursue their own search solution.