Eric Schmidt On His Relationship With Steve Jobs: Truthful Or Hypocritical?

According to some, Steve Jobs absolutely hated Eric Schmidt, because believed that Google betrayed Apple after 'stealing' the iPhone's multi-touch U.I. for Android, which only added multi-touch sometime in 2010, a full year after Android made it to market in 2009.

However, to hear Eric Schmidt speak, he and Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, were practically the best of buddies and they both had an understanding and agreement that eventually Apple and Google would part ways, yet they and their companies would still remain on the best of terms nonetheless.

To quote Mr. Schmidt:

“We understood it was a possibility when I joined the board,” he said of the business conflicts. “We had adult conversations about it at the beginning and the end.

“All those reports in the press were wrong,” he added. “After I left the board, they had me to events and to private dinners.”

Well, that's one side of the story and others are now beginning to cast considerable doubt on Eric Schmidt's statements and the truthfulness there of, and especially ever since the death of the iconic Jobs. These would include Fortune's contributing writer, Eric Jackson, who wrote a recent post entitled, "What's Up With Eric Schmidt's Revisionist History Of His Relationship With Steve Jobs?"

Mr. Jackson basically infers that Mr. Schmidt's views of his relationship with Jobs, and Google's with Apple's, are pretty much, you know what? Or, in plain language, Mr. Schmidt's view of history is nothing but a lot of bullshit, and he backs that up with this quote by Jobs:

“We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business,” Mr. Jobs told Apple employees during an all-hands meeting shortly after the public introduction of the iPad in January, according to two employees who were there and heard the presentation. “Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.”

Jobs's quote, as Mr. Jackson points out, is in total variance with Mr. Schmidt's own comment below:

“As part of my joining the board, we understood that Apple and Google were going to be companies that partnered and compete. And we agreed that, if we were to more compete than partner, it would be right for us to split up. So it was all very cordial. Steve and I were and still remained good friends and I have just an extraordinary respect for his leadership. So on a personal basis, it was fine and I think it was the right thing to be part of Apple and it was also the right thing to leave when I did.”

Mr. Jackson then goes on to ask:

"Why is Eric Schmidt doing all these media appearances? I agree with Om Malik’s conclusion, he’s trying to re-write history. He’s trying to insist that everything was always hunky-dory between these two men, when that’s clearly not the case.

If Schmidt truly knows that things didn’t go down between them as he is saying, I find it pathological and scary that he would seemingly be waiting by the phone for Steve to die to hit the talk show circuit giving his view of history — all seemingly so we think highly of Schmidt as a smart guy and friend of Steve’s."

Well, personally I can't answer why Eric Schmidt is doing what he is doing, but Mr. Jackson certainly makes some convincing arguments that he was, indeed, trying to rewrite history to make himself, and Google look and come out smelling like roses. Whether that is indeed the case, well I know neither Mr. Schmidt nor did I know Steve, so I can't say for sure, one way or the other.

Of course, some people are hoping that Steve Jobs official biography, written by Walter Isaacson, will help clear the air? Already, one of the juiciest parts trows a considerable amount of water on Eric Schmidt's latest version of the events describe above when Steve threatened to destroy Android with 'thermonuclear war' as noted by TheDailyBeast, who wrote the following below:

"Walter Isaacson's biography offers new insights into Jobs's falling out with Google founder Eric Schmidt, an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Infuriated over Android phones that borrowed iPhone features, Jobs told Schmidt the product was “grand theft” and said, “I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” He told Schmidt he would never settle because money wasn't important to him. "

Is Eric Schmidt really telling us the truth with his current version of events, or is he, as some contend, simply attempting to rewrite history in order to help cover his and Google's tracks?

In conclusion, that is something that I don't know for sure, of course, but I do know that if you have any reason to doubt both Mr. Schmidt's or Google's version of the events describe above, then I couldn't blame you for doubting, and especially after reading the Mr. Jackson's post, but then again you can probablly find just as many people who disagree with Mr. Jackson's post and point of view as do.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this sunny, but cold, Monday, October 24, 2011

Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt photo via: BusinessInsider