Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
|
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said he will discuss with Apple how his role on its board might change after Google’s move to launch a new operating system.
Because Google’s new Chrome OS would compete with Apple’s own computer software, Schmidt said he would talk to the Mac computer maker about whether he should recuse himself from Apple’s board.
“I’ll talk to the Apple people. At the moment, there’s no issue,” Schmidt told reporters at a Sun Valley media and technology conference organized by boutique investment bank Allen & Co.
While Google and Apple compete directly or indirectly in a number of areas — the most obvious being the smartphone market — Google’s announcement this week that it will launch an operating system raised more questions about the relationship between their boards…
Schmidt began recusing himself from Apple board meetings where the iPhone was discussed after Google launched its own Android mobile phone operating system.
Google’s Chrome OS — expected to debut in netbooks in the second half of 2010 — would compete directly with Apple’s OS X platform.
Schmidt said Chrome, which is based on open-source technology, worked with Apple’s Safari browser.
“There’s a very large collaboration with respect to Chrome and Safari,” he said.
RTFA if you absolutely, positively have to hear about Steve Jobs health.
Google has to be bitter that Apple sabatoged the new HTML specifications with that Ian “Hixie” Hixon guy planted in the w3c… Seemingly to destroy web standards and make them meaningless…
Either that, or the guy is utterly incompotent at his job in the w3c..
I am thinking Google and Apple will part ways soon enough. If Google plans to start competing with Apple and Microsoft on the operating system front. Then I know Steve Jobs will have non of that. It would be like Steve Balmer being on Apple’s board. I think it would be clearly a conflict of interest. Since the Google OS is probably a year away I think their is time for a graceful exit.
I think he’s an asset to the Apple store since he knows the competitive landscape better than anyone else on the board except Jobs. Everyone is looking at the products like phones and OS’s.
Look at their revenue streams and you’ll see very different companies.
I find it ironic that Google is going after MS’s core product (Operating System) while Microsoft is going after Google’s core product (search).
Perhaps both should focus on their core competencies.
I agree with qb. I don’t think that they are in direct competition with each other, but both working toward a better operating system / phone / whatever. If the iPhone was the ONLY touch screen phone on the market that you could get and make programs for yourself, it would seem a little like a niche. Having android out there shows that yes cell phones can be a viable computer in your pocket. All android vs iPhone does is push their ideals further and gives the consumer a choice. Nothing is wrong with that.
Chrome could be a killer app on the iPhone.
I don’t necessarily see a contradiction here.
I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the new Google OS.
On the positive side, I think Google is making the best software these days.
On the negative side: we are so screwed if Google goes evil. Those guys have ALL our personal information, forever archived on their servers.
Bye bye Eric!
Google + Apple is solid. Sure they overlap a tweak, but look how much better each is due to the association with the other. They’re roommates. Who cares which one got more test points in the last exam? They’re buds.
Android is and OS.
The Chrome OS is nothing more than an idea at least for now and unless they expand it way beyond what they promised it is going to about the lamest excuse for an OS that one can imagine.
I see this as going into ultra cheap netbooks with a small flash drive that phone companies can give away to su…customers that sign two year contracts.
I’m fairly confident that Apple will make the right decision. Truthfully, Apple and Google work so close together, I often wonder if they haven’t discussed a merger, and maybe they have and just don’t think it will pass approval from the FTC. So this is what you get. If there was any “evil” going on here, don’t you think Apple is smart enough to figure that out? Or, is Eric Schmidt so charismatic that that he could woo his way through life, NO, have you heard the man speak?
ChromeOS is not going after Mac sales, it’s going after the low-end market who would sell their souls to personal data miners just to feel as if they are part of the game. Apple competes with cheap and free right now and does very well.
Apple and Google are just fine. I really believe if they could merge, they would. It’s things like this that keep everyone else thinking they are competitors, when truly they are not. Which makes me think of the corporate version of gay marriage for some reason.