New York, NY (AHN) - Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from the board of directors at Apple on Monday, citing increased competition between the two tech giants.

Originally, Apple sold computers and software, while Google was an Internet search engine. Now, both companies are competing for mobile phone consumers, with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating system. Google has also entered the computer operating system market, with Chrome OS, which will take aim at another core aspect of Apple's product line.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement on Monday explaining, "Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful."

"Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, 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 due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple's Board," Jobs added.

Schmidt has long been an influential man in Silicon Valley. He started his career working for companies like Bell Labs and Xerox and joined Sun Microsystems in 1983. He left to become CEO of Novell in 1997, and in 2001 was recruited to lead Google.