From the "what-took-you-so-long" category: Today, Apple announced that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt is no longer on Apple's board of directors. This had to happen and probably should have when Google released Android. With Google's announced intention of building a competitive PC operating system, Schmidt simply had no business advising Apple anymore (or would it be best to characterize that as spying on Apple anymore?)
Apple's official announcement is short, to the point, and barely hides a sour note:
"Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”
But truly, the best way to kill 15 minutes today is to read the Fake Steve Jobs blog about the whole deal. He's got a string of post of all the people calling and trying to weasel their way onto Apple's board. Including fake Guy Kawasaki (whose involvement with rumor site Truemors, which "covered" Jobs leaving and returning to Apple, hasn't earned him a lot of friends among secretive types like Jobs), Microsoft blogger Scoble, Wired's Chris Anderson and Fast Company's Jon Rubinstein.
Here's an excerpt:
"Well, just so you know, everybody thinks it was just seriously uncool on his part. I mean, first he's all acting like he's your best friend, and pretending like he's totally loyal to you, he's working side-by-side with you on strategy and product development, and then what? Boom! He just goes and starts making products that compete directly with what you're making, and worse yet, he starts talking smack about how your stuff is old-fashioned ..."
Funny stuff. But Google, you lost what could have been a great ally with your need to create operating systems. We'll see where Google's ambition leads next.
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