Apple could lose $15B if DOJ forces Google to stop paying to be iPhone's default search engine

Apple stands to lose up to $15 billion a year if the Justice Department forces Google to stop paying the company to be the default search engine on all iPhones - as regulators question the legality of the longtime arrangement. Anytime iPhone users open a web browser to enter a search query, it always defaults to Google. Even though anyone can change this setting, almost no one does, resulting in a huge amount of traffic (and ad revenue) to Google from over a billion iPhone users worldwide. Analysts from Bernstein estimated that Google's payment to Apple would increase to $15 billion in 2021 and as high as $18-$20 billion this year, reports 9to5Mac. The contracts are the basis of the DOJ's antitrust against the California-based company, which began in the closing days of the Trump administration and won't head to trial until sometime in 2023 Last year, Apple's total gross profit was over $152 billion - so losing the Google payments would shave at least 10% off.