> But Apple gets into trouble when they start thinking, "People want iPhones and these jerks are copying our iPhone"
and
>The reaction was the same, "How dare Microsoft try to give people Apple-like stuff!"
I think Apple's position on this has been misinterpreted over the years. They don't have any problem with copying good ideas from others and don't have the "how dare they" attitude towards Microsoft (or Google) that people seem to think. What I believe annoyed them over the years was that Microsoft took the basic premise of their stuff, made it worse (i.e. produced a "third-rate" product as Jobs has called it), and was winning with this strategy (because, they felt, that "enterprise" was making the purchasing decisions and that they were suffering from the layer between them and the consumers).
On Google, they're competition, so they're competing with them. The Eric Schmidt angle might make it a bit different, but largely I get the sense that Apple respects what Google does, believes they make great products, and is focused on beating them in the market where they both compete.