It’s not uncommon for major companies to have CEO’s and people of note from other non-competing companies or fields on their board of directors. It’s generally a good idea to be able to tap into views and ideas of people who aren’t drinking your companies own Kool-Aid all day every day.
Case and point was Eric Schmidt’s position on the Apple board of directors since August of 2006. But it seems that relationship ended today.
Since 2006 Google has pushed more and more into Apple’s core businesses.
First Google built Android, the smart phone operating system, distributed for free, that enables other smartphones to compete with the iPhone.
Now Google has announced Chrome OS, a new operating system built on linux, designed for low power netbooks and nettops that is designed to take advantage of “cloud based” applications.
While neither of these directly compete with Apple. Google doesn’t make a phone, and Apple doesn’t make a netbook (or are they?) it’s just getting too close, and Dr. Schmidt is having to recuse himself from too much of the board meetings content to be useful to Apple.
It’s an understandable move, and one some people have expected to happen since the announcement of Android. But I will miss the close contact Google and Apple had. I hope that the relationship forged here can continue without this level of direct contact.
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amazon.com: Hello, Android: Introducing Google’s Mobile Development Platform
