Back to Mobile View

Skip to Content

Eric Schmidt "couldn't stay on" Apple's board (Updated)

Update: The original story had a misquote and was subsequently updated to correct this. We've updated our story as well.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke with Salesforce Chairman CEO Mark Benioff in a Q&A session earlier this week. The former CEO had kind words to say about Steve Jobs and called Jobs' reign over Apple as "the best performance of a CEO in 50 years." Though he had glowing words about Jobs, Schmidt was less enthusiastic about his time on Apple's Board of Directors.

Speaking about his time on the board, Schmidt says, "I was on the board until I couldn't stay on the board anymore." The quote came from a Bloomberg report which did not provide the context or additional details about this somewhat scathing comment. But looking back at Schmidt's time on the board, this attitude is not that surprising.

When Schmidt was on the board, Apple had launched the iPhone and Schmidt, as the head of Google, had just launched Android, a competing platform to the iPhone. It must have been an awkward and tense time to be on the board of a company that is now your chief rival.

[Via AppleInsider]

Categories

Apple

Update: The original story had a misquote and was subsequently updated to correct this. We've updated our story as well. Google...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

15 Comments

Filter by:
peterwells101

Eric Schmidt out of grounds yesterday:

In [ http://read.bi/ericoutofcontrol ]Eric Schmidt on Sep 2, 4:02 AM said:

@Peter Cao: Peter. It's me, Eric. I thought we already talked about this. I am going to squash you like a bug if you keep posting on this comment board. What you don't know (but surely suspected) is that the video cameras I installed in your house are allowing me to track everything you do. In fact, I am live streaming your pathetic life, including all the insane searches you do about my home address and love interests, to all my friends on the Stanford faculty. Next I will bring in my mafia-like dark killing power to bear.

===========================================================
Eric, be you real or not Schmidt, so finally, your psychological defense was broken, now that your mind became insane.

Didn't I defeat you globally wherever you go? You still don't understand, that's because your deeds, killing the innocent and threatening the victim, would not be tolerated anywhere on this planet. Anyone would be alerted of this case when you assisted a Stanford Computer Science faculty Sebastian Thrun to counter Stanford ruling against him and to threatening me from fighting against your crimes, by threatening me with the real murder case of
Stanford student May Zhou; in fact, police investigation had confirmed it is people on you (Schmidt) and Thrun's side who murdered May Zhou, before I would post the case on the web. Quite a scandal unheard of in history of college education.

I clearly aware your side is closely watching me though I am a powerless victim on the other side of the earth, because you fear me of my speech to the public about your crimes, crimes you dare not deny, but would drive you insane as you are now. I never search your address or personal issues, other than posting your deeds on the web, this time you are really irritated and finally displayed the evil you to the public.

Have some manners please. That's not going to save you of your fate as a loser ... You still have to explain to the public of your crimes behind May Zhou's case and plotted murder on me, which got you removed from your CEO position, and so You still have to face the legal conseqences. [ http://bit.ly/mayzhoucase ]

September 03 2011 at 1:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason Pollock

If you watch the interview: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/full-video-salesforces-marc-benioff-interviews-google-chairman-eric-schmidt/ the quote is at 27:22.

September 02 2011 at 11:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shannon Doherty

Google CEO on competitor's Board of Directors... not only is there a conflict of interest but is there possible corporate espionage? Would Android be in the same state if he wasn't on the board during that time the iPhone was being designed and developed, with all the necessary decisions and strategies being bandied about during meetings for manufacturing or research?

September 02 2011 at 2:48 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Shannon Doherty's comment
Shannon Doherty

Corporate espionage wasn't the right term to use, but something along the lines of knowing information that others would not be privy to if they weren't on the Board, and then using this info to his advantage in Android's plans.

September 02 2011 at 2:49 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
macserv

Of course it wouldn't, and no current mobile operating system would. Android just got the goods first because of Schmidt's position.

No major OS developer in the mobile space had ever done what Apple did: go back to the drawing board for the touch-screen interface and redesign it to be entirely controlled with nothing more than a finger or two. No more mouse cursor, no more keyboard, no more stylus. That is the real value of iOS; what Apple worked so hard to create. It is what legitimized handheld and tablet computing and allowed the technology to finally get a foothold with consumers, and subsequently spread like wildfire.

Newton didn't have this concept. Palm didn't have it. Danger didn't have it (as much as I loved it). Windows Mobile certainly didn't have it. Early Android didn't have it. But now, no mobile operating system maker would ever dream of doing it any other way.

September 03 2011 at 3:02 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to macserv's comment
Shannon Doherty

So then how is Schmidt not in any kind of trouble over it? Even slightly? Or was he and I had not heard of it? Do you know?

September 05 2011 at 4:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down
BKO

Journalism ! Well done again, gang. God forbid you pick up a phone to verify a story.

September 02 2011 at 2:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to BKO's comment
Victor Agreda Jr

The story elsewhere was updated *after* this had been scheduled to publish at a later time. Sorry, we've fixed it. We also sacrificed a child at your altar as penance.

September 02 2011 at 3:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Victor Agreda Jr's comment
Brandon Martinez

I think BKO's point is that you don't have to regurgitate *everything* as fact.

September 02 2011 at 3:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down
Frankjl

Oh god all the damn blogs are now running with that misquote.

Blogs sometimes are just pathetic.

September 02 2011 at 2:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jake

check the "Via AppleInsider" link at the bottom...it was a misquote.

September 02 2011 at 2:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dale

Not enough smarmy toad people to commiserate with, I'm assuming. Not defending Apple's board, but I found Schmidt utterly odious.

September 02 2011 at 2:07 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Steve Winslow

The original quote that this article is based on has been corrected to say "could not STAY" on the board, not could not stand the board. You might want to update your headline here.

September 02 2011 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Steve Winslow's comment
mikehild

More importantly, the linked article seems to have been deleted. 'Less enthusiastic" links to an Item Not Found page, unless it's simply a typo in the URL? If the article itself has been deleted, it could be because of said inaccuracy.

September 02 2011 at 2:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mikehild's comment
mikehild

Never mind, looks like it's back up now. Maybe they had too many people linking to it and took it down for a while.

September 02 2011 at 5:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.