In this month’s Bloomberg Businessweek cover-story entitled Larry Page’s Google 3.0, reporter Brad Stone touches upon what may be the root of ongoing bickering between Apple and Google. While the two companies continue to work with each other in many areas, there is no denying the public hostility they show one another. It’s more than just marketing jabs and a competitive nature — these two giants are constantly at each other’s throats. From the Businessweek feature:
As Android became a threat to Apple in 2008, Apple began resisting Google’s claim to valuable location data gathered whenever an iPhone owner used Google Maps. [Vic Gundotra’s] negotiations with Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller grew so heated that Schmidt and Steve Jobs had to intervene to settle the matter, according to two people familiar with the incident. (Apple announced earlier this year that it had developed its own location-monitoring system. Gundotra and Schiller both declined to comment on the incident.)
The iPhone’s influence over the Android operating system is also thought to play a role in the quarrel. Many will recall that early Android prototypes bore an OS that looked and operated much like RIM’s BlackBerry operating system. Android was also intended for touchscreen and non-touch devices at the time. At launch, however, Android had shed many of its BlackBerry-like features and had instead adopted several elements that mirrored Apple’s iPhone OS. The alleged spat between Google’s VP of engineering Vic Gundotra and Apple’s marketing boss Phil Shiller is believed by some to have been influenced by that shift in Android strategy. The rest, as they say, is history — Google and Apple will likely grow further apart as their battle in the mobile space and beyond continues to heat up.
