Report: Google's revenue from iOS is 4 times that from Android

You would think that the lion's share of the cash flowing into the vault at Google's HQ in Mountain View would be postmarked from Android. But an analysis of the company's cash flow by The Guardian shows that a majority of Google's cash has come from the iOS platform. This sounds like blasphemy to be sure, but if the numbers used by the U.K. paper are correct, Google stockholders and executives might have a bigger smile on their faces watching someone use an Apple iPhone than say, a Samsung GALAXY Nexus.

According to data from the recent court battle between Google and Oracle, the former banked $550 million from Android between 2008 (the year the T-Mobile G1 was launched) and 2011. CEO Larry Page estimated during a conference call that last year alone, Google's mobile businesses brought in $2.5 billion. So how did Google grab all of that additional cash?

The answer, according to The Guardian, lies in the deal that Google signed with Apple that dates all the way back to the original version of the Apple iPhone. The deal licenses Google's search technology and map database for use on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. To date, that amounts to over 300 million units.

Google is believed to make $10 per Android device sold. If you use basic math, you can compute that Google makes four times as much on iOS than it does on Android. And if the company is earning $10 on each Android device sold, that would work out to $40 per each iOS unit purchased. That figure seems a bit high, but would certainly put Google in a strong win-win situation. Ironically, Kevin Rivette, the managing partner at intellectual property firm 3LP Advisors LLC, said that if Apple licensed its technology to Android manufacturers, it could make $10 on each Android device sold.

source: Guardian via BGR