Both Apple and Google are moving into ebook territory more directly with their upcoming tablet offerings, and both are already used heavily by people like me who like to read on their smartphones. Recently, with Apple's lawsuit against HTC, a longtime manufacturer of Google phones, including Google's own Nexus One, brought things to a fever pitch. It's not really a lawsuit about HTC, it's about Google, and The Times did a great background piece about how things got this far.
Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal
Quote:
...by 2001, with Mr. Jobs back at Apple and Mr. Schmidt running Google, they shared a singular mission: limiting Microsoft’s hegemony to the personal computer and ensuring that Bill Gates didn’t dominate the frontier of online services and mobile devices.
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Two years [before Apple began selling the iPhone], Google had acquired the start-up that was developing Android. At the time, the move was largely aimed at Microsoft and meant to ensure that it didn’t wind up controlling the market for mobile devices. But when Microsoft faltered in the emerging smartphone market ... Google continued to push ahead with Android and its vision of a more open mobile phone ecosystem.
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But there is wide speculation in technology circles that Apple is preparing to give Google a public black eye: by making Microsoft’s offering, Bing, the preferred search engine on the iPad, and perhaps even on the iPhone. ... And it would present an unlikely sight: Steve Jobs and Apple, running from the arms of Eric Schmidt and Google, into the embrace of Steve Ballmer and Microsoft.
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That's really only a tiny taste of the article. If you're interested, be sure and read the whole thing. It's long, but very well written.