Larry Page Interview: In a recent interview with Wired, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page discussed the state of his own company as well as others in the tech industry, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). While Page never crosses the line, it is interesting to see what the search engine executive has to say about one of his company’s top competitors.
While the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO makes a good point, in some regards, others will find his comments slightly off base.
Wired asked the following question to kick things off:
“Now you have a separate division called Google X, dedicated to moon-shot projects like self-driving cars. Why did you decide you needed to set up an entire department for this?”
Here is what Page had to say in return, his first mention of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL):
“I think we need to be doing breakthrough, non-incremental things across our whole business. But right now Google X does things that can be done more independently.”
“You know, we always have these debates: We have all this money, we have all these people, why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that Apple only does a very, very small number of things, and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these opportunities in the world to use technology to make people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That means there’s 99 percent virgin territory. Investors always worry, “Oh, you guys are going to spend too much money on these crazy things.” But those are now the things they’re most excited about—YouTube, Chrome, Android. If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things.”
In short, he feels that Apple could be doing more with its resources. While he admits that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) could be doing more as well, this comment makes it seem as if Page feels they are ahead of competitors in this regard.
It wouldn’t be a conversation about Google and Apple if the “maps discussion” did not come to light. Here is the exchange between Wired and Page:
“Android has always prided itself on being a more open platform, compared to Apple’s walled-garden approach. That came into stark relief when Apple pulled Google Maps from iOS6 and launched its own maps app. Did the uproar over that decision vindicate your commitment to openness?”
And now for the response from Page:
“I don’t want to comment on partner relationships. But we’ve been working on Maps for a long time, and it’s nice to see people realize that we’ve put a lot of effort and investment into it. That’s clearly more appreciated now.”
There is nothing wrong with a little bit of friendly competition, right? It was interesting to see how Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page perceives Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), one of his company’s top competitors.
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DISCLOSURE: I have no positions in any stock mentioned.
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