Apple and Google get divorced, the FTC investigates

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.

 

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.