UPDATED 09:40 EDT / OCTOBER 15 2012

Would Schmidt Open Source iOS as Apple’s CEO?

By Kristen Nicole, Mellisa Tolentino and Saroj Kar

In an interview with AllThingsD, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt stated that if he were to serve as CEO again at any company, he would choose Apple.  Having once sat on Apple’s board, the company is near and dear to Schmidt, not to mention, Apple is where the money is.

So the big question now is, what if Schmidt were Apple’s CEO instead of Tim Cook, or even Steve Jobs?  Would Apple still be the same, or would it look more like Google?

Schmidt, the Data Hog

One could describe Schmidt as a data hog, with a love for accumulating tons of data and building services around that knowledge base.  He once said that with Google, the goal is to organize “the world’s information making it universally accessible and useful.”

Perhaps you’ve noticed the range of products Google’s launched over the years, building more algorithms to contextualize web content, images, videos, and even our local surroundings.  From Google Search to Google Maps, and the most recent addition to the family, Google Now, Schmidt’s influence on data-as-a-service is central to everything his company does.

Apply data to Apple

If Schmidt were running Apple, he would’ve recognized the importance of data-hoarding years ago, circumventing embarrassing debacles such as 2012’s Mapgate.  Data only increases in importance as mobile devices and services look to personalize the consumer experience, making sense of our immediate environment.

While Apple has made several acquisitions in recent months to make up for lost time in data hoarding, it may not have been enough.  Google’s love of data and algorithms has opened doors to a range of industries, products and consumer services, adding to Google’s flexibility as a platform.  Apple, on the other hand, has relied on companies like Google as data partners, and that’s turned a once lucrative relationship quite sour.

Schmidt’s All-Access Pass

Given Schmidt’s love of data and his desire to make Google’s knowledge base available to all (for free), his company’s fostered a spirit of openness that’s benefitted the technology sector with open source projects like Android, their Apps Platform, Chromium and MapReduce, to name a few.  Google’s released dozens of open source projects over the years, contributing to several industries including mobile, web browsing and data management.

But Google’s most recognized open source project is likely Android, the mobile OS that took on iOS and won.  With a fundamentally different business model and a far more open marketplace, Android is the mobile OS for every man, delineating the mobile industry similarly to the days of Microsoft PCs versus Apple.  Android has its own shortcomings, and sometimes suffers from being too open.  Limited control over Android implementation leaves minimal flexibility for Google in pushing update adoption or device distribution, leaving consumers with a varied Android experience all the while.

Would iOS be open-sourced?

But despite Android fragmentation, the open source strategy has been instrumental in Google’s OS overthrow.  So would Schmidt make iOS open source?  Maybe.  It’s possible Schmidt would present licensing agreements to device makers, or work more closely with others in the mobile industry to extend the iOS experience to other connected devices, similar to how iTunes is available for Windows PCs.

Even before the iPhone launched, Apple maintained a closed ecosystem for its hardware and software.  Partnerships and limited licensing is probably the extent to which Schmidt would release Apple’s OS to the general public, though Schmidt may encourage other open-source projects and contributions that emerge from Apple’s culture of innovation.

Schmidt’s Counter Culture

Schmidt is a people person, heavily vested in his workforce.  His application of the 70/20/10 model at Google set a new trend for countless companies to follow, building a reserve of knowledge workers and giving them an environment to explore and cultivate their talents.  Seventy percent of a worker’s time should be dedicated to core business tasks, 20 percent dedicated to projects related to the core business, and 10 percent dedicated to projects unrelated to the core business.  This drives innovation for Google.

In fact, Schmidt took this concept from business guru Peter Drucker ,who coined the term.  Drucker didn’t see much value in a person who works from 9 to 5, preferring people that work efficiently.  Another benefit of the knowledge worker is that they tend to perform more reliably under pressure, like meeting a deadline or coming up with new ideas.

And Google’s not the first company to benefit from Schmidt’s focus on corporate culture.  When he joined Novell as CEO, the company was in turmoil reporting losses, and the problem Schmidt saw was that the workers, which were mostly engineers, were afraid of voicing out their opinions for fear of being fired.  Schmidt dealt with the issue head on and turned Novell into a profitable company, meeting with staff engineers and asking them to introduce him to the smartest engineers they knew at the company.  Before you know it, Schmidt had identified the best and brightest on his staff, encouraging workers to share ideas.

This is the same culture he brought to Google.  Discourse and opposition are welcomed, not frowned, upon as these negativities help the entire team see the situation from all sides.

Apple culture

Apple, too, has its own corporate culture of creativity and innovation, though you’re far more likely to see the influences of Google’s implementation in studies and news reports.  Fostering the sharing of ideas is also important at Apple, though these brainstorm sessions are spurred and utilized for different purposes.  A good idea from an Apple engineer will quickly evolve into a patent application, building a different type of knowledge reserve for the iPhone maker (we’ll get into patents later).  Considering Schmidt’s appreciation employee contributions, he’d likely continue to seek more ways to leverage Apple’s own knowledge base to encourage their legacy of high design and quality in their devices.

If Schmidt were CEO of Apple, he may retain much of Apple’s corporate culture, though a few things may also be tweaked.  The veil of mystery Apple maintains over their corporate culture may be drawn back a bit, perhaps even opening up more to the public and investors about Apple’s products, issues and long-term goals.  This is something current CEO Tim Cook has already done since taking the reins after Steve Jobs stepped down last year, addressing the public regularly in his recognizably no-nonsense style.

Schmidt on Patents: A Tricky Topic

During the interview with AllThingsD, the topic eventually turned to “standard essential patents,” a hot button topic for Google, but even more so for Apple.  A standard essential patent is one so basic that it should be licensed to everyone.  Schmidt said that he did not want to discuss them as he doesn’t know all the details, getting upset by the very subject of patents, stating that “patent wars are a disaster for all of us.”

“Everyone can find prior art for everything,” Schmidt goes on.  “So the new trick is to get judges to block devices country by country. It’s bad for innovation, it’s bad for choices.”

It’s no secret that Google has been beefing up their patent portfolio in recent months, but it’s been a defensive move that’s outside of Google’s typical behavior pattern.  In response to the deluge of lawsuits from rivals in the mobile space, including Apple and Microsoft, Schmidt and his team have had to think differently about patents altogether.

The patent vs. data defense system

But how much of an issue would patents be if Schmidt were running Apple?  Had he been CEO in recent years, Apple may not have its current patent portfolio, leaving Apple vulnerable in consumer electronics sales as companies like Samsung and Google offer alternatives in hardware and software.  Apple’s launched an all-out war against any competitors in the mobile space, armed with patents as they take the battles to courtrooms around the world.

Considering Schmidt’s penchant for partnerships at Google, from search ads to Maps, it’s possible Schmidt would have facilitated licensing deals instead of lawsuits as Apple’s CEO.  But as I mentioned before, Schmidt also would have prepared for a service-based product via Apple devices, arming the company with data instead of patents.  This would leave Apple less reliant on partners like Google over time, and perhaps less likely to initiate seemingly petty lawsuits on the offensive.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU