Apple and Google about to have a public fall out?

Apple were recently in the news for filing a lawsuit against the manufacturer HTC and now it looks like Google and Apple could soon be in a heated debate.

Google and Apple have worked very well together in the past, they brought together Google maps for the iPhone. When Apple sued HTC they were also taking a swipe at Google, some HTC handsets run on Google’s android OS. To Google this could be seen as Apple trying to slow down the Google empire.

According to a lengthy report in The New York Times, Apple are in rivalry with Google again as they feel that Google are stealing the iPhone features and patented technology for their own android devices. Google have denied this and said that many features have been around several years and some even before the iPhone emerged. Apple refused to comment to The New York Times and Google still deny there is any on going disputes. Even if that is the case it still hasn’t stopped Apple and Google battling it out with each other through the media and their employees. The New York Times goes on to report:

At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google’s campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch — the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers — he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as “fierce” and “heated.” While Google listened to Apple, it rarely backed down. “I don’t think they made many accommodations,” says a former Google executive who was briefed on the discussions. “Google is not a company that is particularly afraid of anyone, including Apple.”

The two companies really should be working together, there is so much they can offer each other. There have been many rumours circulating that Apple could be moving to working with Microsoft and using them as the search engine on all Apples products, which would be a great blow to Google. Surely this is something that neither of them want when they have worked so well in the past and could become very successful together giving the consumer more options.

Google offers flexibility with their devices and the applications that can be used on them. Apple on the other hand prefers a tight control over their product. Many iPhone users are already are fustrated by Apple’s limited options and I think this is why you see so many users searching ways to jailbreak their iPhones. I’ve noticed on Twitter people already exchanging comments wondering how easy the iPad will be to jailbreak, surely this isn’t a good thing for Apple.

At the end of the day the mobile world is moving with the times, and touch screens are the next big thing. Do you think Apple should stop all companies from ‘stealing’ their ideas or will they be fighting a losing battle?

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