It wasn’t that long ago that those bone chilling words from Jobs came to light:
“Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google you f***ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off”
and
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.
“I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this,”
In response, while speaking to reporters in South Korea, Schmidt stated that he wasn’t interested in responding to the book but did however want to offer some general perspective on Steve Jobs’ claims.
“I’ve decided not to comment on what’s been written on a book after his death,” …”Steve is a fantastic human being and someone who I miss very dearly. As a general comment, I think most people would agree that Google is a great innovator and I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort.”
Schmidt’s reasoning is not without merit. Android Inc. was founded by Andy Rubin back in 2003 and two years later Google acquired the small and upcoming company and made Rubin lead software engineer. The gripe most might have is that the popular iPhone first launched in 2007 while Android’s first device, the T-Mobile G1, didn’t hit the market until 2008. However, both companies play a different role and utilize a different strategy for each respective device/OS. Apple has a closed source policy when it comes to iOS while they tout the hardware and Google offers their Android OS to a variety of handset manufacturers. In addition, the drama further escalates when you consider the fact that there were strong ties between Schmidt and Apple especially during the development and launch of the original iPhone. Schmidt made Apple’s board in 2006 and in 2009 was compelled to resign due to an increase in competition between the two entities. Later it was reported that Jobs and Schmidt began to fade away as friends however, Schmidt quickly denied the claim stating the two were still quite friendly.
“We understood it was a possibility when I joined the board,” Schmidt said of the possible conflicts of interest with Apple. “We had adult conversations about it at the beginning and the end…all those reports in the press were wrong. After I left the board, they had me to events and to private dinners.”
In other concerns, Schmidt also made a statement in regards to the company’s plan to spend $12.5 billion on Motorola Mobility and its possible effect on the Android ecosystem.
“In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android…we’re not going to change in any material way the way we operate”
Feel free to leave your thoughts, feelings and/or rants in the comments below.
[via Cnet]