The Federal Trade Commission (or FTC, for those pro-acronym) has begun an investigation of the relationship between computer company Apple and search giant Google. The suspicion? Antitrust violations, according to the NY Times.
According to the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, no individual may be present on the board of two rival companies when it would potentially reduce competition between them. Currently, Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google, as well as a director for Apple, and a man named Arthur Levinson (former chief executive of Genentech) is a director on both companies. As you may be aware, Apple is currently developing and maintaining its iPhone smartphone with full force, and Google had its Android platform to essentially rival that. That's where the problem with the Clayton Antitrust Act comes in.
The FTC has notified Apple and Google of their interest in these matters, though apparently spokespeople for both Apple and Google declined to comment. This will be interesting for the future on both Apple and Google's mobile device operating systems; Google's products are currently integrated right into the iPhone OS itself, with the Maps application, as well as there being a number of applications developed by Google on Apple's App Store. What do you think about all this, Neowin?
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