Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) used to serve on the Apple board of directors. He left, presumably, because of a growth in competition between the two companies. That competition has gotten more intense since Schmidt stepped down.

Google’s Android mobile OS and its Nexus One handset are obviously competing against the iPhone. Each company has bought a mobile ad sales and serving operation to capitalize on the growth in wireless marketing. Google spent $750 million to buy AdMob. Apple bought Quattro Wireless.

The tensions boiled over at a “town hall” meeting that Steve Jobs held with Apple employees. He said, according to Wired, that Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan is “bullshit.” He also remarked that developers at PC and handset software firm Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) were “lazy” and slow to introduce new products.

Jobs went on to say that the rivalry between Google and Apple was largely the search company’s fault. Apple has not entered the search business, he reasoned. But, Google has entered the mobile phone industry.

It is hard to say whether Jobs is arrogant or worried. Google is one of the few companies in the world that has the software engineering prowess and balance sheet to challenge Apple in its fast-growing wireless hardware and software businesses which now include the iPhone and new iPad. RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) and several PC companies compete with Apple in some product categories, but Apple gets the best of most of these rivalries. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) builds and markets Windows for both PCs and handsets, but Apple has taken market share in both sectors for the last two years.

Whether Jobs in nervous or confident about his rivalry with Google, the competition is certainly getting ugly.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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