Eric Schmidt today said something unexpected at an Interview with The Wall Street Journal. Eric, Google Chairman today opened his mouth on Apple and Google relationship. Also, Schmidt expressed surprise at Apple’s decision to stop using Google’s map app in iOS6, a decision that led to much embarrassment in September after users reported getting wrong location results. Let’s start with Questions and answers asked by Interviewer to Eric:
Interviewer: How Google’s relationship with Apple has changed in the last year.
Eric: It’s always been on and off. Obviously, we would have preferred them to use our maps. They threw YouTube off the home screen [of iPhones and iPads]. I’m not quite sure why they did that.
The press would like to write the sort of teenage model of competition, which is, ‘I have a gun, you have a gun, who shoots first?’
The adult way to run a business is to run it more like a country. They have disputes, yet they’ve actually been able to have huge trade with each other. They’re not sending bombs at each other.[divider]
Interviewer: if we’ll see a similar patent deal between Apple and Google that we saw with HTC.
Eric: Apple and Google are well aware of the legal strategies of each other. Part of the conversations that are going on all the time is to talk about them.
It’s extremely curious that Apple has chosen to sue Google’s partners and not Google itself.
Schmidt stated that Apple is involved in legal disputes with Google’s Android partners and not with Google itself. The full interview offers much more detail on all these topics. SO head over to WSJ for more.
