Apple has just announced that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from his position on Apple"s Board of Directors.
Apple"s CEO Steve Jobs issued the following statement:
"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."
It"s hardly surprising that Schmidt has resigned from the board. With Google moving to create the Chrome OS and Android it is now directly competing with Apple rather than offering web based services for Apple to use. Speculation surrounding Schmidt"s position began shortly after Google announced their Chrome OS. Schmidt already had to excuse himself from iPhone meetings with the board, as it conflicted with the Android division of Google, however, despite this, the FTC was investigating the link between the companies to ensure that there were no anti-trust violations. Schmidt was not sitting in on iPhone meetings, after the release of Google OS chances are the same would have happen with Mac OS meetings... so he would have been left with overseeing the iPod.
Schmidt has been on Apple"s board since August 2006. The news follows reports that the FCC is investigating Apple"s rejection of Google"s Voice app for the iPhone.