Google’s Eric Schmidt: Apple Is A Little Less Thermonuclear Towards Us These Days

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At the same Sun Valley conference where Apple CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue are prowling around looking for iTunes deals, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that the war between Google and Apple isn’t quite so thermonuclear anymore. In fact, he says Cupertino is thawing in many respects towards the search giant.

According to Schmidt, Google and Apple are “in constant business discussions on a long list of issues.” These discussions are largely conducted by Google Chief Business Officer Nickesh Arora, and while Google and Apple don’t collaborate nearly as much as they did back even a couple of years ago, Apple’s started thawing out when it comes to dealing with Google.

A lot of the tension between Apple and Google stems from Google’s decision to directly compete with the iPhone by releasing Android back in 2008. Steve Jobs was reportedly furious at Google’s move, claiming he would use every penny Apple had in the bank to right the wrong Google had done to him. In particular, Jobs specifically felt betrayed by Schmidt, who used to sit on Apple’s board of directors.

Google, of course, has largely been kicked off of iOS by now. Although the iPhone used to ship with YouTube and Google Maps built in, Apple has gotten rid of both of them in iOS, replacing Google’s mapping software with their own solution. Things might be a little less frosty between the two companies now, but I’m guessing there’s still no love lost.