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.

The Behemoth and the Leviathan...

It was a bit surprising to learn today that Google boss Eric Schmidt and former Genentech boss Arthur Levinson sit on the boards of both Apple and Google. However given the disclosure its not surprising that The US Federal Trade Commission is looking into the ties between the two boards.

The New York Times said the inquiry involving Google and Apple centres on a possible breach of anti-trust laws. The Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1941 forbids a person to be on a board of two rival firms at once if it believes competition between them.

Apple and Google both offer competing web browsers (Chrome and Safari), phone systems (Android and the iPhone), then there is services such as YouTube versus iTunes. However, they have apparently work together on Gmail and Google Maps for the iPhone and what would the position be if Apple were to launch the iTouch as a media ‘killer’ player/reader and Google were to win the book settlement and become the bookseller?