Despite their continuing legal battles, new reports have suggested search giant Google will pay bitter rival Apple as much as $1 billion (£638.24 million) to be the default search browser on the company’s market dominating hardware ranges.  In 2009, the search giants paid only $82 million for the privilege.

It seemed like an impressive win for Mozilla when the new three-year, $900 million deal with Googlewas announced. The Foundation derives the bulk of its funding from that search deal and in return Google gets billions of search hits. But that deal may pale in comparison to what it pays Apple.

Business Insider brings a little hyperbole into the equation, saying that if the iPad continues to grow that it’ll surpass PCs in 5 years — at which point an Apple switch to another search provider could be devastating for Google. They base this speculation on the recent news that iPhoto has dropped Google Maps as a location provider, which some feel is an indication that Apple no longer needs Google at all.

For every dollar of revenue Google makes on iOS thanks to advertising and data collection, Apple gets 75 cents from Google. The number is only going to increase in the coming years if iOS sales keep growing.

Are you an Apple iDevice or Mac user? Do you stick strictly to the Google search options of your device or  make use of alternatives such as Bing?