iLounge

In spite of increasing competition between the two companies, a Google executive has made positive public comments about its relationship with Apple. Reuters reports that Vic Gundotra, head of mobile engineering for Google, said, “Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we’re very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that’s going to change.” Speaking at an industry roundtable discussion at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Gundotra was also pressed on the issue of Google’s presence on the iPhone, and responded, We don’t want to comment on those rumors. We think that relationship is stable.” A report from January stated that Apple was in talks with Microsoft to see the latter’s Bing service replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone; a more recent analyst note said there was a “high” likelihood of the deal becoming a reality. Apple CEO Steve Jobs also took a couple of shots at Google during a recent company meeting, reportedly saying that some “teams at Google want to kill us,” and added that Google’s “Don’t be evil” mantra is “a load of crap.”