Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to be such a nice guy...
No, wait, that's not right. But he used to be friends with the Guys from Google. Several years ago at a Google annual meeting, Sergey Brin said that they loved and respected Apple, and that we should expect the companies to work together in the future. Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple's board.
But would the two companies still respect each other the morning after Google started messing around with an Android? No. Jobs feels violated. He kicked Schmidt out of the love nest.
The folks at The iPhone blog don't think Nexus One is as good as the site's love child, the iPhone, and they have a video to prove it, while Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet thinks they're aimed at different markets. The iPhone is for the stylish, while the Nexus One is ... not.
They do seem to forget to mention that the Nexus One may appeal to people who don't want to use AT&T as a carrier.
Besides, Google will only ship 1 million to 3 million Nexus Ones this year. Apple will sell 42 million iPhones.
Now, according to Business Week, Jobs is in discussions to replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone with Bing, created by that powerhouse in search technology, Microsoft.
OK, that's not fair. Microsoft has done a good job with Bing. It has always taken the company three times to get it right.
According to one of Business Week's two sources on the matter:
"Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle" between Apple and Google.
Wow. That has to be the first time anyone has ever described Microsoft as a pawn.
One other bit of Apple news in the article:
Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, a move that would encroach on Google's ad-serving business, the person says.
I wonder if that will be an advertising system for the stylish.
NOTE: I'm keeping tabs on everyone who hates Google on my website, RichardLBrandt.com