Google eyes 'competitive, cooperative' relationship with Apple, Facebook, Amazon

Search giant Google sees a "competitive and cooperative" relationship among itself, consumer electronics giant Apple Inc., online retailer Amazon, and social networking juggernaut Facebook. Google chairman Eric Schmidt made this assessment at a local forum in Taipei, where he cited the four companies because they are "rich and have scale." "I pick the four because we have never in our industry had four large companies growing so quickly with such a broad consumer platform," Schmidt said, according to a report on Taiwan's Central News Agency. He added the competition among them is good because "competition creates investment." "Each of them is very different. Each of them is run well. Each of them is successful in their own right," he said. Schmidt noted companies usually compete and partner with each other "in mature markets." Citing examples, he said Google has partnered with Apple in search and maps, yet the two companies also compete very strongly on mobile applications. Google is behind the Android operating system, which competes with Apple's iOS platform that runs iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. On the other hand, he said Amazon is using Android to make the Kindle Fire tablet, while it competes with Google in product search. "We partner and we compete, and we respect each other," Schmidt said. — TJD, GMA News