Image courtesy of BusinessWeek

They’re only 10 miles apart from each other in Silicon Valley and have spent almost a decade as best buddies, but Apple and Google may be gearing up for the mother of all battles, with the mobile computing crown as the ultimate prize.

BusinessWeek has an extensive look this week at the friction brewing between Apple and Google. Both companies have enjoyed a healthy, loving business relationship for almost a decade -- after all, Google was the only company to make a contribution to the original iPhone with the Maps application at a time where it was walled off to everyone else.

But things began to unravel in late 2007, when Google announced their own open-source Android OS for mobile devices. It came less than six months after Apple started selling the first iPhone, which ultimately led to Google CEO Eric Schmidt giving up his seat on the Apple board as the two companies’ interests started to intertwine more and more.

“Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the time, “Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings.”

The heat got turned up last summer with Apple’s very public rejection of two Google apps for the iPhone, including one for Google Voice, which also had the side effect of having already-existing third-party developer apps with the feature removed from the App Store.

But with this month’s introduction of Google’s Nexus One “superphone,” there is no doubt that the two companies will now move from simple saber-rattling to a possible all-out war. “Apple and Google both want more,” says Chris Cunningham of New York mobile advertising firm Appssavvy. “They’re gearing up for the ultimate fight.”

As usual, Apple had no comment for the BusinessWeek story, but Google did provide a statement from Vic Gundotra, their vice-president of engineering: “Apple is a valued partner of ours and we continue to work closely with them to help move the entire mobile ecosystem forward.”

The exhaustive BusinessWeek piece by Peter Burrows is well worth a read in its entirety, especially since the skirmish between the two companies could ultimately do more harm to the mobile business in the long run if it continues...