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The article has a few weak assumptions: > Sacconaghi estimates that Alphabet (ticker: GOOGL) pays Apple (AAPL) between $7 billion and $8 billion a year for Goo

The article has a few weak assumptions: > Sacconaghi estimates that Alphabet (ticker: GOOGL) pays Apple (AAPL) between $7 billion and $8 billion a year for Google to be the default search engine for iOS ... The real figure is probably $12 billion - https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-engine/* https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-en... > Google pays that large sum to Apple in part out of concern about what Microsoft (MSFT) might be willing to pay Apple to supplant Google with Bing* Unlikely. Apple does not have search, and they simply need the best search available for their devices to stay true to being "premium". > Sacconaghi thinks Apple should consider acquiring the No. 4 search engine (after Google, Bing, and Yahoo)—privately held DuckDuckGo. He thinks Apple could likely buy it for under $1 billion, “ This is completely off. DDG is highly unlikely to be worth that much. As discussed in this other thread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23458202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23458202, DDG is dependent on Bing both for search and ads. > And he also writes that “If Apple attempts to acquire DuckDuckGo but is blocked by regulators, it would arguably put Apple in a worse position than ever, given that Google and Microsoft would then know Apple has no alternatives.” This does not make much sense to me. It's not the kind of thing I see regulators going after. Happy to be schooled though.

greenknight 6y ago
> Unlikely. Apple does not have search, and they simply need the best search available for their devices to stay true to being "premium". That being said, how did Apple Maps turn out vs Google Maps?
- arcticbull 6y ago
  > That being said, how did Apple Maps turn out vs Google Maps? Best is subjective, and Apple Maps UI is leagues ahead of Google Maps in my experience. Accuracy is improving over time.
- awinder 6y ago
  Apple Maps really has improved, and they just rolled out a huge map tile quality improvement to get denser displays (the “closer to google” argument). With recent quality improvements I take Apple Maps over google maps grand majority of time (well in pre-lockdown life). It took a while but I think its finally working out genuinely well now.
0xy 6y ago
>Unlikely. Apple does not have search, and they simply need the best search available for their devices to stay true to being "premium". Apple continue to use AMD graphics cards in all of their products, despite Nvidia having the clear and obvious edge at the high end.
- smabie 6y ago
  And let's not forget that they use Intel CPUs either, despite them being more expensive and having worse performance.

greenknight 6y ago

> Unlikely. Apple does not have search, and they simply need the best search available for their devices to stay true to being "premium". That being said, how did Apple Maps turn out vs Google Maps?

arcticbull 6y ago
> That being said, how did Apple Maps turn out vs Google Maps? Best is subjective, and Apple Maps UI is leagues ahead of Google Maps in my experience. Accuracy is improving over time.
awinder 6y ago
Apple Maps really has improved, and they just rolled out a huge map tile quality improvement to get denser displays (the “closer to google” argument). With recent quality improvements I take Apple Maps over google maps grand majority of time (well in pre-lockdown life). It took a while but I think its finally working out genuinely well now.

0xy 6y ago

>Unlikely. Apple does not have search, and they simply need the best search available for their devices to stay true to being "premium". Apple continue to use AMD graphics cards in all of their products, despite Nvidia having the clear and obvious edge at the high end.

smabie 6y ago
And let's not forget that they use Intel CPUs either, despite them being more expensive and having worse performance.