Google CEO ‘occasionally excused’ from Apple board meetings
Google chief executive and Apple board member Eric Schmidt disclosed during a speech on Wednesday that his unique situation atop the leaderships of both high tech firms has periodically required that he step away from portions of the iPhone maker’s board meetings. “It has not so far,” Schmidt says, although he notes that must ‘occasionally be excused’ from the room when certain aspects of the iPhone enter discussions. He also downplays the significance of the events by pointing out their rarity; there isn’t a regular clash between each other’s interests, according to the Google executive.
“I’ve only done this once or twice, so it’s not as common as it sounds,” Schmidt adds.
To that end, Schmidt also takes care to distance phones using Android from the iPhone. The offerings should be “quite different” in practice, he explains. While the differences weren’t fully illustrated at the event, Android devices aren’t required to use a touchscreen and in some cases can have either physical controls alone or even both, in the case of the rumored HTC Dream. The software is also more flexible than for Apple’s device and allows handset creators to modify nearly any aspect of the code, including core components like the dialer.
- from Appleinsider