Eric Schmidt leaves the Apple’s board of directors
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Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google since August 2001, was a member of Apple’s board of directors until yesterday while having the highest responsibilities with Google. If consumer associations have been suspecting him of being in a conflict of interest for a while now, Steve Jobs declared: "We have mutually decided that the time was right for Eric to resign". Indeed, with the release of Chrome OS and the development of Android, Google had well become a direct competitor of Mac OS and of Apple’s iPhone.
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Google / Apple: the Google Voice case
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The thing that apparently hastened the separation between Google and Apple is certainly the recent quarrel between the 2 Silicon Valley companies about the application Google Voice. Indeed, the latter allows bringing together for free and via the internet all your numbers (home, pro, cellphone), all this via a lot of applications. However, this isn’t to the liking of the Cupertino company who advocates a more closed system and wishes to promote its subscription to MobileMe services. For now the FCC, the US telecom authority, has sent a letter to Google, Apple and AT&T to shed light on the reasons why the application Google Voice is refused.
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The FTC seeking conflicts of interest
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Richard Feinstein, in charge of competition for the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), has been closely interested by the nature of the relationship between Google and Apple "for a long time". The commission will "keep investigating other possible connections between the 2 companies" and it seems that the presence of Arthur Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, in the board of directors of both Apple and Google is really of interest for the FTC. To be continued.
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