“Apple today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, was elected to Apple’s board of directors at their meeting today. Eric also sits on Google’s board of directors and Princeton University’s board of trustees. “Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple’s board of directors,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.”
Google is pretty big on OSS and FOSS. Does this mean we might see more open source and possible GPL stuff from Apple in the future?
Or is thist just a PR stunt by apple/google, and Schmidt won’t have much in the way of power at apple?
relax, it’s only a secondary job for Eric ;·)
Google isn’t all that big on “OSS and FOSS” (OSS and FOSS = Open Source Software and Free and Open Source Software btw). They use it internally, but they have yet to actually completely open source anything useful.
But they do employ key developers to key desktop Linux applications, including Gaim, Firefox, the kernel, and more. They also are promoting the usage of Firefox. Sounds pretty FOSS friendly to me if they employ developers for them.
Do they employ those developers to work on those “Linux applications”, or do they just employ skilled people who just happen to work on Gaim, etc. ? Did they hire those developers to give them the possibility to go on their work on those same applications, or did they hire them because they needed them ? Do they simply use FOSS, or do they participate in any way ?
The members of the Board do not generally meddle in the day to day running of the company or the strategic direction. Their mission, broadly speaking, is to provdie oversight–making sure the interests of the shareholders are being served by the managers, including and especially the CEO. Sadly, while these board members have to be approved by shareholders, most board members on Fortune 500 companies have few to no shares in the companies which they oversee. Their loyalty is often not to the anonymous mass of sharehodlers but the CEO himself who had much to do in their appointment. We can looking forward to seeing Jobs himself nominated to other corporate boards (if he is not alredy). These chaps look out for one another and the very lucrative system that propelled them to their positions.
Edited 2006-08-31 00:07
So I’m sitting at my desk supposedly working, reading the first post when the AMD ad takes over and starts blaring out across all the cubes “Hi, I’m Bill from AMD”.
Has OSNews completely lost touch? That’s a violation of advertising rule NUMBER 1. NEVER automatically blast video or worse, audio, to your site visitors. I just totally lost faith in this site.
Longtime reader but it was worth finally registering to post this.
You must be using Internet Explorer… I never see this ad in Firefox.
Maybe the OSNews staff hates IE users enough to punish them with bad ads.
It is OK, everything costs money. These guys have to eat Pizza. Advertising is good for them.
Besides, AMD is desperate for attention since their products are not so competitive now.
You want this:
http://osnews.com/contact.php
Try not to spam the comments section of random storys. You may have a point but it’s the wrong place. Use the contact emails instead. The two times I’ve mailed them about site issues they’ve always been kind and receptive.
HTH.
Use Adblock
It’s all well and good to have Google on-board at Apple, but Jobs needs to accept that the “Apple way” may not actually be the right way and allow Google’s talent to actually inflence something more than the Apple PR headlines.
How exactly is Google “on-board at Apple” now? The CEO of Google took a second job on Apple’s board is all. This doesn’t indicate anything whatsoever. Schmidt isn’t even going to have any power at Apple, he’s going to be a glorified advisor. He really doesn’t even have any power at Google, considering Sergey Brin and Larry Page together hold so much voting power due to the share structure that they can over-rule any decision he makes. The only reason this even made headlines is because Google and Apple are famous and well-known companies, and Mr. Schmidt is the CEO of Google.
I can just see it now, this is just another step in WORLD DOMINATION by Google.
Sure is! They’re just taking small bites at a time…
Have very few yearly meetings at Apple. If this blossoms into partnering Web Services that’ll be the bulk of it.
i agree. i think people are reading too much into this. i don’t see any big impact on apple at this point. it every-so-slighly increases the likelihood of a partnership, however they could’ve done that just as easily without naming Erik Schmidt to the board of directors.
Google + Apple ?
Microsoft be affraid!
a few ideas
.mac email may even turn into a rebranded gmail.
Apple may, instead of competing with excel directly, may use google’s.
iTunes may become part f google pack.
google talk and ichat interoperability
These are just a fe potential ideas. The influence wont be direct just yet, but it WILL be there.