Google's Larry Page Laments Tech Rivalry

Larry Page said that Google's competition with Apple is hurting users, according to a report released today.

Page said that he didn't like to see tech companies pitted against each other because they need cooperation on the user side, he told Fortune. "(It's) a shame when you think about it that way. . . The Internet was made in universities and it was designed to interoperate. And as we've commercialized it, we've added more of an island-like approach to it, which I think is a somewhat a shame for users."

Page said he had no animosity towards Apple, although he was aware that the late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs used competition to rally the troops, something he said was partly but not entirely for show. Page had this to say about Google relationship with Apple now, "What I was trying to say was I think it would be nice if everybody would get along better and the users didn't suffer as a result of other people's activities. I try to model that. We try pretty hard to make our products be available as widely as we can. That's our philosophy. I think sometimes we're allowed to do that. Sometimes we're not."

Page was also candid about his relationship with Jobs, saying that it was friendly "at times." 

That's a generous statement from the CEO of a company, considering that Jobs was quoted in autobiography, "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." 

 
 
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