In a visit to South Korea, Reuters reports that Google boss Eric Schmidt wanted to reassure the native home of Samsung that the company’s upcoming acquisition of Motorola wouldn’t impact its relationship with other Android manufacturers. “The Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently,” he said,”it will not violate the openness of Android.” Schmidt also took a moment to comment on the late Steve Jobs, whose official biography is causing much speculation on the early days of Android and the iPhone.
This isn’t the first time Google has reassured its OEM partners of its continuing neutrality in the Motorola Mobility purchase, but considering Schmidt’s audience, the repetition is understandable. Google has also committed to protecting its partners from Android-based litigation, though Motorola is the only manufacturer that has yet to sign a patent licensing agreement with Microsoft. Apple doesn’t want to deal with anyone: they’re suing Samsung, HTC and others over design patents all over the world.
Speaking on Steve Jobs’ biography, Schmidt had nothing but good things to say about the late Apple CEO. He did take a moment to get in a quick dig at the iPhone, though, noting that development on the original Android system (before Google bought the start-up company) pre-dates all known development on the iPhone. “I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort,” said Schmidt. Technically this is true: even though the first commercial Android device wasn’t available until 2008, Andy Rubin founded the original Android, Inc. company way back in 2003. Schmidt refused to comment on the biography itself, and it’s worth noting that Schmidt served on the Board of Directors for Apple from 2006-2009, and had considerable personal interaction with Steve Jobs.
[via SlashGear]
