Google paid Apple $1bn - plus a percentage - to remain default search app on iOS

Apple drives a hard bargain - and a big, fat commission from Google

Google paid Apple $1bn in 2014 in order to remain the default search engine in Apple's iOS mobile operating system - and also pays a percentage of all revenues that it generates via Apple devices.

The revelations were made in court transcripts from the ongoing case between Google and Oracle over Google's use of the Java API in order to compile Java code to run on Dalvik, a virtual machine designed to run Java code on Android.

There had been conjecture leading up to the deal that Apple planned to replace Google as the default search engine with in-house developed technology, which would also help Apple drive more revenues from its platform. However, that may also have been a bargaining chip that Apple used in order to squeeze more money out of Google, coincidentally also its biggest rival in mobile operating systems.

The disclosures were uncovered by newswire Bloomberg, which claims that they were subsequently quickly removed.

According to Oracle attorney Annette Hurst in a court hearing last week, a Google witness last week, questioned during pre-trial information, also claimed that "at one point in time the revenue share was 34 per cent" - although it wasn't clear from the transcripts whether it was Apple or Google who trousered that 34 per cent. Google, meanwhile, objected to the information going on the record.

"That percentage just stated, that should be sealed," lawyer Robert Van Nest was quoted by Bloomberg. "We are talking hypotheticals here. That's not a publicly known number."

The disclosure comes after the court had heard software giant Oracle claim that Google had generated revenues of $31bn and profits of $22bn since the release of Android, Google's Linux-based operating system.

Oracle is claiming that Google's use of the Java API in order to run its apps on Dalvik on Android infringes its own Java software patents. Google claims that APIs are not - and should not be - patentable.