Apple-Google Party Ended Before FCC Waltzed In

Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s departure from the Apple board can be most directly linked to the rejection of the Voice app from the App Store, which has sparked a probe by the Federal Communications Commission, Erick Schonfeld writes for TechCrunch: “Google brought down the disapproving scrutiny of the FCC onto Apple on Friday night, and on Monday morning Schmidt resigned. It is difficult not to make a connection.” But, Schonfeld writes, there is a deeper conflict.

Apple honcho Steve Jobs didn’t mention the FCC in a statement, Schonfeld writes, but did say Google’s dabbling in mobile markets is “increasingly becoming a ‘conflict of interest’ for Schmidt.” Google’s ambitions—it “wants the mobile Web to be as open as the Internet”—put it in conflict with an Apple that “is not about being open,” Schonfeld writes. “Google is not so much the enemy of Microsoft as it is the enemy of the old model of device-centric computing which both Microsoft and Apple represent.” (More Steve Jobs stories.)