Think you know Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft as tech giants racing to outdo one another? Think again, for beneath their polished devices and services lie billion-dollar deals, quiet dependencies, and partnerships you would never expect… enough talk, let’s get into some of these surprising and lesser-known facts.
You probably knew that Apple’s iPhone screens are primarily manufactured by Samsung Display and LG Display, with Samsung being a major supplier for OLED panels used in recent iPhone models. But did you also know that Samsung earns more from selling screens to Apple for the iPhones than it does from selling its own smartphones? In 2017, for instance, Samsung reportedly made much more profit from supplying displays for the iPhone X (also known as iPhone 10) than it did from sales of its Galaxy S8, released the same year.
Apple uses Google Cloud to store parts of iCloud data. Despite being rivals, Apple reportedly pays Google over $300 million annually for cloud infrastructure, according to The Information in 2021.
A CloudFusion commentary on Apple’s AI struggles noted that Apple had to collaborate with both Google and Amazon to secure enough computing power to build Apple Intelligence, as Apple’s stock of over 50,000 slightly outdated GPUs wasn’t sufficient.
And just when you think you’ve heard it all, Google pays Apple an estimated $20 billion a year, based on 2022 reports, to remain the default search engine in Safari across Apple devices. A 2020 U.S. Department of Justice filing stated that about 50% of Google’s search traffic originates from Apple devices, although this varies year to year. A 2023 CNBC report revealed that Apple receives about 36% of Google’s search revenue generated through Safari, a figure later confirmed by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
Did you notice that during the recent Google event ‘24, while demonstrating a new Android feature, Google, the company behind Android, used Samsung phones instead of its own Pixel line, even though both run on the same operating system? That’s because Samsung Galaxy phones hold a significantly larger share of the Android market and better reflect the typical Android experience than any Android phone on the market. By using Samsung devices, Google gains broader visibility and stronger ecosystem alignment than it currently would with Pixel phones. This trend extends to Google’s advertising of its apps and services.
Back in 1997, Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple when the company was on the verge of collapse. Announced by Steve Jobs at the Macworld Boston Conference, the deal included making Microsoft’s Internet Explorer the default browser on Macs, ensuring the continued development of Microsoft Office for macOS. This unlikely partnership stabilised Apple and paved the way for its resurgence with the iPod and iPhone.
Did you know that most of Google’s business is still largely driven by advertising, not hardware? In 2023, Google Ads accounted for over 75% of the tech company’s $300+ billion revenue, while hardware products like the Pixel phone accounted for only a small fraction.
You may know that ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, also owns CapCut. But did you know that TikTok operates a separate version of the app in China called Douyin? It follows stricter regulations and includes features like parental curfews.
The bite in Apple’s logo was added so it wouldn’t be mistaken for a cherry, ensuring the fruit was clearly recognisable as an apple.
And finally, most voice assistants, including Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, don’t process your speech locally; instead, they send your commands to cloud servers for processing. This is why Siri or Google Assistant, despite their brilliance, can’t answer 1+1 without an internet connection.
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