Embarrassing, Apple Is Responsible For The Vast Majority Of Google’s Mobile Revenue

Image via CrunchBase

There are new revelations about the health of Google’s mobile business and it looks like Google is in really bad shape. Thanks to documents submitted in the legal battle between Google and Oracle over patents, the public gets a new look at exactly how well Google’s Android is performing.

Google is secretive about letting the public know about how much revenue Android brings in – but now we know that Android actually doesn’t make much money for Google at all. Google’s overall 2011 revenues totaled about $40 billion and much of that is from ads from search results on desktop computers. Very little of Google’s overall revenues is from mobile.

According to The Guardian, Android generated less than $550 million between 2008 and 2011 – pitiful. Google produces the Android software which it then gives away for free to handset makers to sell. Google makes its money from ad revenue on the mobile devices and from applications on Google Play (formerly known as Android Market), which is doing extremely poorly compared to Apple’s App store.

Here is where it gets particularly interesting – Google actually makes more money from Apple’s mobile devices than it does from its own Android powered smartphones! Now isn’t that hilarious, ha-ha, especially considering the recent bad blood between Google and Apple.

Apple is responsible for generating more than four times as much revenue for Google! This is because at least half of all smartphone owners use an Apple device and Google is the default search engine. Apple also extensively used Google Maps – but as recently told Google to get lost and is now using a mixture of its own acquired mapping technology and free crowdsourced mapping.

Who knew that Apple had such a big role in Google’s mobile business?

Majority of Google’s mobile traffic can be credited to Apple. Google should be grateful to Apple for being so helpful, but Google treats Apple like crap. Google expressed its gratitude to Apple by trying to impose itself into Apple’s territory, which infuriated Apple.

What did Apple do as payback?

Apple no longer extensively uses Google Maps, Apple added other search engines as alternative options to Google’s, and Apple appears to be ditching Google altogether in China (a huge and attractive market). And we all know about how Apple set its Safari Web browser default to automatically block third-party tracking cookies  – however, it was exposed last month that Google illegally circumvented this security feature, but is now facing countless lawsuits from Apple users.

Psst…hey Google…don’t bite that hand that feeds you.

For more information:

The Guardian, “Google’s Android has generated just $550m since 2008, figures suggest” – click here

AppleInsider, “Google earns 80% of its mobile revenue from iOS, just 20% from Android” – click here

Apple Makes Business More Difficult For Google In China

Apple Inc. (Photo credit: marcopako )

It is being reported that Apple will be ditching Google in China and replacing it with Baidu as the default search engine. Baidu is the dominant search engine provider in China with a market share estimated at 78%, while Google doesn’t even come close to that number.

Apple’s new operating system will integrate various popular Chinese Internet services – this will make it more attractive for consumers. This will further weaken Google in China, which is a huge loss for the company because the Chinese market is a very attractive one. Apple is making it even more difficult for Google to get its foot in the door. Apple also plans to ditch Google as the default search engine on mobile devices in China.

Recently, it was also reported that Apple ditched Google Maps and is now using a free crowdsourcing mapping service for its mobile devices. It looks like the battle between Apple and Google is getting even more intense and Google is losing.

For more information:

ITProPortal, “Apple To Replace Google With Baidu For The Chinese Market” – click here

DailyFinance, “Are Apple and Baidu About to Team Up on Google?” – click here

googleexposed, “Apple Tells Google Maps To Take A Hike” – click here

French Court Tells Google to Pay Up

“The French Tribunal de Commerce has ordered Google to pay €500,000 (around $650,000) in damages to Bottin Cartographes, a company specializing in creating location maps for businesses. The Parisian court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin against Google France and parent Google Inc. for providing its Google Maps API to businesses free of charge. Google only charges businesses to use its API if they have high traffic, or charge users for access to their site.

Bottin Cartographes first filed a complaint in 2009, and argued that Google was damaging its business by running Maps at a loss until it controlled the market.

“Google is ruining the market, they offer something that costs them. They want to crowd out the competition to gain a monopoly position in targeted internet advertising.”       

In addition to the €500,000 payment, Google will also have to pay a €15,000 fine”

Reported by Aaron Souppouris of The Verge.

For more, click here