Schmit Goes at the Break of War?

The resignation of Google's CEO Eric Schmidt as a director of Apple's board has quite rightly failed to stop the US Federal Trades Commission’s inquiry into possible antitrust violations. "We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies," said the FTC's Richard Feinstein. However former Genentech CEO, Arthur Levinson, still serves on both boards and has been called to step down from either Google or Apple to avoid antitrust violations.

Apple now clearly compete on many areas; mobile telephone technology, mobile apps, computer and mobile operating systems and maybe even a bookstore. The big question is now whether the two will polarise one on their web centric computing and the other on a more traditional approach. Expect the mobile wars between Google and Apple to get messy as both go after the rest and to dominate the market. Video, music and book wars as one exploits search, discovery and service and the other brand and design cache.

The recent Google Voice apps fiasco was just a starter, created a long overdue departure and now promises more battles in what may be a long war.