Google CEO Larry Page Talks Favorite Android Tabs, Apple’s Thermonuclear War

Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page has been vocal about some of his favorite Android tablets and his company’s public image with Apple in the era of Apple late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs.

In a recent interview with Businessweek, Page opines that Apple’s war with Android is overblown.

In Jobs’ biography written by Walter Isaacson, it was said that Jobs believed that Android was built from stolen technology from Apple and that Jobs wanted to wage thermonuclear war against Android.

That, may be just a ploy to gain publicity and lead his team, according to Page:

I think the Android differences were actually for show. I had a relationship with Steve. I wouldn’t say I spent a lot of time with him over the years, but I saw him periodically. Curiously enough, actually, he requested that meeting. He sent me an e-mail and said: “Hey, you want to get together and chat?” I said, “Sure, I’ll come over.” And we had a very nice talk. We always did when we had a discussion generally.

Page had sought out Jobs for mentorship when Google was first founded and the two had gone full circle. According to Page, the two had a good chat towards the end of Jobs’ life, despite Jobs’ public declaration of thermonuclear war.

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher.

Page also revealed some personal preferences as far as Android tablets are concerned. Page says that he had enjoyed the Motorola Xoom tablet in the past and is currently using an undisclosed Samsung tablet model. As far as a Google-branded Nexus tablet? Page gives the political ‘no comment’ spin on that matter.

I really like using my Samsung tablet. I previously used the Motorola Xoom for a while and liked that. I think that those are great experiences, but they’re going to get a lot better. I think that we’re at the pretty early stages of this.

And in terms of recent complaints about pure Android devices–like the Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G for Sprint, and Galaxy Nexus smartphones–not  being able to synchronize contacts with Facebook, to which Page cites that Facebook doesn’t offer the same reciprocity and that data in Facebook are essentially trapped.

We would love to have better access to data that’s out there. We find it frustrating that we don’t. It’s the tendency of the Internet to move into a well-guarded state. We’ve pushed pretty hard, for example, around just having contact reciprocity. I mean, our friends at Facebook have imported many, many, many Gmail addresses and exported zero addresses. And they claim that users don’t own that data, which is a totally specious claim. It’s completely unreasonable.