Apple's Battle With Google is Getting Personal

The New York Times details the deterioration of the Apple-Google relationship and describes how emotional the situation is becoming.

In a four page article, the paper reveals that the companies began feuding once Google's plans for Android became clear. Jobs and Schmidt had multiple meetings concerning the mobile operating system, many of which turned confrontational with Jobs often accusing Google of stealing iPhone features.

Google executives said that Android’s features were based on longstanding ideas already circulating in the industry and that some Android prototypes predated the iPhone.

At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google’s campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch — the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers — he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as “fierce” and “heated.”

While Google listened to Apple, it rarely backed down. “I don’t think they made many accommodations,” says a former Google executive who was briefed on the discussions. “Google is not a company that is particularly afraid of anyone, including Apple.”

Things continued to worsen with the release of the Motorola Droid openly bashing the iPhone and Apple refusing to allow Google Voice and Latitude to be distributed on the App Store.

Then last fall Apple made a formal bid to acquire AdMob, a rapidly growing mobile advertising company, for $600 million.


While Apple conducted due diligence on the deal, AdMob agreed to a 45-day “no shop” provision, a routine clause that prevented the start-up from offering itself for sale to others, according to three people briefed on the negotiations. But after Apple inexplicably let 45 days pass without consummating its offer, Google pounced.

Apple responded by purchasing Quattro Wireless, a rival to AdMob, for close to $300 million in January; signaling that it would be a competitor in the mobile ad market. However, the announcement was overshadowed by bigger news. Google introduced the Nexus One, a custom designed phone intended to compete directly with the iPhone.

Although the Nexus One didn't ship with multitouch, a few days after Jobs derided Google’s “Don’t be evil” mantra, Google adding multitouch capabilities crossing a line that Jobs had drawn in the sand.

INSIDE both Apple and Google, employees say, the sense of rivalry is intense and a peacemaker is sorely needed. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life,” one Apple employee says. “I’m in so many meetings where so many potshots are taken. It feels weird.”

The article continues to discuss possible mediators for the two companies. Interestingly, it completes misses some major topics such as Google's announcement of its Chrome Browser and upcoming Chrome OS; as well as, Apple's lawsuit alleging patent infringements by HTC which is widely viewed as a thinly veiled attack against Google and the Nexus One.

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