Eric Schmidt Interview: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: ‘Android Winning Mobile Battle with Apple’

Eric Schmidt Interview: Current Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) executive chairman Eric Schmidt believes the company’s Android is pulling away from rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the mobile software market. In a recent interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York, he likened the current landscape to the way Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) expanded its desktop software in the 1990s, leaving the competition in the dust.

According to technology research company Gartner Inc., Google’s Android smartphones held onto 72 percent of the market in the third quarter with Apple lagging far behind at 14 percent.

Schmidt added, “This is a huge platform change; this is of the scale of 20 years ago — Microsoft versus Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). We’re winning that war pretty clearly now.” Google remains confident in its ability to continually attract new users. This is backed up by Schmidt’s claims that more than 1.3 million Android devices are being activated daily.

The company is betting that consumers will continue to move away from traditional computers and rely more heavily on mobile devices. Despite the fact that Google “gives away” Android to hardware partners, such as Samsung, Schmidt has no problem with the final result. In the end, Google feels good about this trade-off as it eventually benefits its suite of Internet services.

In the same interview Schmidt added, “The core strategy is to make a bigger pie. We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems.”

It is hard to argue with Schmidt’s stance on this matter, as the statistics back up his claims. For example, research firm IDC reported that Android shipments accounted for nearly 75 percent of the market during the third quarter. Adding to this is the fact that Android’s share was only 57.5 percent during the same quarter last year. In other words, Google’s dominance has increased over the past 12 months.

What are your thoughts on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s ability to win the mobile battle with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)? Let us know in the comments section below.

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