Google Chairman On Defensive Over Steve Jobs' Apple Idea-Theft Accusations
On Tuesday, Google chairman Eric Schmidt defended against allegations from recently-deceased Apple co-founder and former-CEO Steve Jobs that the search giant pirated ideas and technology from Apple’s pioneering iPhone for their Android mobile operating system.
Schmidt told reporters that he is still “very sad and recovering from the sense of loss” from Jobs’ death last month, and found it improper at this time to comment on the Jobs’ s remarks concerning Google in Walter Issacson’s best-selling posthumous biography of the Apple innovator.
Jobs argues in the candid bio that Google blatantly lifted many features from the iPhone's award-winning industrial design, user interface, Dock, App Store, and firmware to build many of the features their popular Android software.
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“I decided not to comment on comments that are written in the book after his death. I don’t think it’s right,” Mr. Schmidt said, describing Jobs as a respected colleague, and a “fantastic human being” whom he “dearly” misses.
After a well-documented seven-year battle with pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs died Oct. 5 aged 56.
In more diplomatic times, Schmidt served on the Apple’s executive board, from 2006 to 2009, but resigned on grounds of conflicting interests when the smartphone wars between the two tech giants escalated.
Despite the bad blood, the Silicon Valley neighbors kept a cordial, albeit chilly, business relationship.
Much like Apple’s barring of Adobe’s Flash technology for the iPhone’s mobile browser, Apple has historically stymied an official iOS-native app for Google’s hugely-popular Gmail client.
Schmidt challenged the claims made by Jobs that Apple was the first to the table.
“Most people would agree that Google is a great innovator, and I would also point out that the Android efforts started before the iPhone efforts,” he said. “And that’s all I have to say.”
