Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt Resigns From Apple Board of Directors
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I find it appalling that some people just repeat what ever silliness comes out of Steve Balmer's mouth. This is a repeat of something hid dumbness said last week. Microsoft is terrified because they are losing groung for the first time. He only brings competitors when they are threatened and have no solution. He sells the expensive hardware idea, but when you buy a mac and have it last for 8 years and still be able to run the latest OS your total cost of ownership is way down.
The other side is resale value. Compare selling a 3 year old used dell ebay to a 3 year old mac with the similar hardware. The mac is still very close to it original price while the Dell is worth a fraction of its original price. Even though it started off more expensive. You can always by cheap junk that wont last. I use to sell Honda. My dealer at one time had a Hyundai dealership as well but even tho it was much cheaper and they started the 100,000 warranty it was just too much trouble because they were always breaking and the customers didn't care about the warranty then, the just wanted to know their could drive home when the got off at 2 in the morning and not be stuck on the side of the road.
You get what you pay for.
Microsoft Surface and Secondlight are certainly good innovations that Apple haven't done before, hmmm copying?
Apple didn't innovate the iPod either, there were other's out there and I seem to recall them using the design from PSION.
Apple are clearly abandoning their original user base of creative professionals and going after the iPhone mass-market. Their machines are nothing different than regular PC's now, apart from the OS.
I wonder how his depature will affect the two companies obvious previous tie-in's.... e.g. the irritating annoyingness that is locking Google.com as the search engine in he Safari toolbar.... (can't even change it to google.co.uk) and Google Maps on the iPhone, looks like old stevey might have to let TomTom in now!
Apple didn't innovate the iPod either, there were other's out there and I seem to recall them using the design from PSION.
Apple are clearly abandoning their original user base of creative professionals and going after the iPhone mass-market. Their machines are nothing different than regular PC's now, apart from the OS.
I wonder how his depature will affect the two companies obvious previous tie-in's.... e.g. the irritating annoyingness that is locking Google.com as the search engine in he Safari toolbar.... (can't even change it to google.co.uk) and Google Maps on the iPhone, looks like old stevey might have to let TomTom in now!
what about the creative zii egg. Is there a new google phone in the future?
Seems like google has the resources to develop a store.
"CNet Asia provides a hands on with Creative's Zii Egg and provides this photo (above). The Zii Egg is a multi-touch iPod touch-like device that runs Google's Android operating system. The device, though, bears a strong resemblance to the leaked bezel images, suggesting that it had simply been mislabeled all along. "
As much as people would like to blame this on the Google Latitude/Google Voice issues, this has been months in the making. Its a conflict of interest when your company, which produces a desktop OS, Mobile OS, and Browser has a CEO of another company that has a Mobile OS, Browser, and is working on a desktop OS on your board of directors. You think it would be ok if Steve Ballmer was on Apples Board of Directors?
Google simply is developing overlap products now that didn't exist at the beginning of their (Apple/Google) relationship.
Who got the most out of this temporary love-fest is to be determined.
Who got the most out of this temporary love-fest is to be determined.
I'm surprised at the speculation here. I have no doubt whatsoever this is simply about what Jobs said it was about - it's a conflict of interest to have the CEO of (what is quickly becoming) a competitor on your board. I see absolutely no reason to suspect there's anything else going on.
Disagree. Companies should not have their competitors' CEOs on the board. It's both bad for keeping business secrets, and frowned upon by the SEC and Antitrust agencies due to the possibility of collusion. Do you think it would be wise for Apple to leave themselves open to a possible future anti-trust action just so they can keep Eric on the Board?
This should be good for competition. Apple and Google being too cosy isn't going to be good for the consumer given that they're working on competing products. We don't just want two versions of the same thing.
I can't say I disagree with you there.
I stirred the pot a little with cynical and snarky speculations, I didn't think people would be quite so riled over it. It has made a more interesting afternoon for me though.
They can still co-operate and compete at the same time. Just because he's not on the board anymore doesnt mean Apple are likely to ditch their Google app links entirely. Friendly competition happens all the time, its only the crazy end users who seem to get all het up about it and act like they're at war with one another.
I think its good he's retired from the board though, that sort of conflict of interest isn't going to help anyone's image.
I think its good he's retired from the board though, that sort of conflict of interest isn't going to help anyone's image.
Speculation here.
We are looking at Android vs. iPhone and Chrome vs. Mac OS X as the conflict of interest.
However, it mentions potential conflicts of interest. Could Apple be looking more seriously at Cloud Computing?
Right now we can DL an iPhone app that works with iDisk. Other items can by sync'ed via MobileMe. What if Apple expanded in other directions such as:
- Cloud Storage. No not the trivial MobileMe amount. I'm talking serious storage as in 100's of GBs. Maybe upwards of TB storage.
- Cloud Computing. What about Web based versions of iWork along with an iPhone version. Seamless use across all three platforms (Mac OS, iPhone and Web).
- Automatic backup of iTMS purchases for a nominal fee. Be allowed to re-download any purchase made from the iTMS. What a wonderful way to back up your purchases instead of purchasing external storage such as NAS, Drobos, and other. It would be like AppleCare for iTMS purchases. With iTMS purchases increasing this would be a wonderful service for many. Simple, easy. It could work like the app store re-downloads.
With the new data center going in NC, this might be part of a bigger plan on Apple's part rather than just data redundancy.
What do you guys think?
Agreed, but if Apple loses this battle, it could be the end of Mac OS. Personally, that would suck.
Chrome OS will be a genius child, Linux is still a teenager and Windows is an aging war veteran. I would rather not use any of them, yet.
I think that sounds reasonable. But I also think Android/Chrome vs. iphone/OS X is enough by itself, so I wouldn't say this resignation really adds (or subtracts) anything to your speculation.
IMO it will be a long time until Chrome is a threat to OS X. And actually, I'm not sure it ever will be; it seems targeted at a different market.
Just watch, and wait, and learn.
Survival of the fittest isn't a theory which applies only to biology. You get to watch corporate entities adapt and evolve, or slowly go extinct.
I'll use smaller words next time, K?
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)
I echo your surprise.
QCassidy352 said:
I echo your surprise.
Actually you have one of the many Mac Users that does not have his head in the sand. They don't want Apple to become another MS. To many when Apple gets big they tend to look & act like MS. They are afraid that if they look like MS to too great of an extent then the innovation may go away. It's getting to be that innovation is the only difference now.
Just open your eyes & really see that as in any discussion there is at least 2 sides. Both can be right & both can be wrong. That's just real life. Keep your head out of the sand.
By the way I've owned many Macs since the first Mac 128 that was later converted to a Mac 512. My last Mac is an Intel Mac Pro. I never have owned a MS-Dos Pc or a Windows PC. I was a convert from a CP/M Heath-Kit straight to the Mac. No Apple II heritage like some here.
Of that, I have no doubt. There will be several new Google phones in the future. There will also possibly be desktops, laptops, netbooks, game consoles, music players,and so on. All with the Google moniker on them.
I actually got a survey a while back where they were asking questions regarding mobileme gallery including things like social networking stuff (you know, the throw a bunch of features on a list and have people rank them in terms of importance).
I'm not sure such a thing would have anything to do with this departure but I do think Apple is toying with this sort of stuff. I doubt they'd do a complete iWork online, though. Desktop suites just aren't very good when you make them web apps, at least not yet.
I find that people often fail to fully understand the significance of the word fitness when applying the theory of evolution to other things. Generational timescale is another important thing that is misunderstood. It's kind of like saying a kid putting his hand on a stove and discovering it to be hot caused him to evolve because the most fit kids don't. The claim fails for many reasons.
Blame the avatar.
All these people quoting MS death are guilty of wishful thinking. Don't forget that just before iPod was released, your beloved Apple was not in the best financial shape. MS has posted a decline in sales after 34 years, how long did it take Apple to do that?
The point is that MS with its familiarity and affordable prices has had a more stable history than Apple, who buy other people's innovations and charge through the nose. A drop in MS sales in a time of global recession is to be expected, it can't be taken as an indication of a trend, unless you are going to extend your assumptions to every other market as well.
On topic its obvious why he resigned. His company now produces too many products that are in competition with Apple so he can't be on the board.
The point is that MS with its familiarity and affordable prices has had a more stable history than Apple, who buy other people's innovations and charge through the nose. A drop in MS sales in a time of global recession is to be expected, it can't be taken as an indication of a trend, unless you are going to extend your assumptions to every other market as well.
On topic its obvious why he resigned. His company now produces too many products that are in competition with Apple so he can't be on the board.