Schmidt candid about AdMob, Apple on the eve of I/O 2010

On the eve of I/O 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt made some pretty interesting comments to Reuters. First and foremost on his mind was AdMob, the mobile advertising giant that Google has been trying to acquire since November of last year. The $750 million deal is currently on hold as the FTC looks into whether or not the sale could negatively impact developers that rely on mobile ad revenue. Although confident the deal will eventually be given the thumbs up, Schmidt vowed that his company would “fight very hard” if blocked. As Schmidt put it, Google’s purchase of AdMob would allow it to open up “a more competitive market on the iPhone platform,” an obvious dig at section 3.3.9 of the iPhone developers agreement which prohibits apps from collecting and sending device data “to a third party for processing or analysis.” Despite all of the relatively tough talk, Schmidt reiterated previous comments that Apple and Google will continue to work together when mutually beneficial and that he and Steve Jobs still get along. Good to know. The question is: How does Steve feel?

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