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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple as part of the government’s antitrust investigation into Google says a Bloomberg report. The government agency is interested in the deal that made Google the primary search engine on the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. The FTC has asked Apple for the documents surrounding this agreement.
Google’s competitors, such as Microsoft, claim the search giant is is unfairly using its position as the number one search engine to increase its mobile phone advertising revenue. According to a report from Macquarie Capital, Google’s mobile search-related revenue climbed to $1.3 billion. Of that sum, Google kept $335 million and gave Apple $1 billion. Another study from research firm eMarketer claims Google earns 95 percent of all mobile-search ad revenue. Microsoft wanted a piece of this pie when in 2010, it tried, but failed, to entice Apple to go with Bing instead of Google as the default search engine on iOS.
About The Author
Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.
