Google's Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt called the contentious relationship between Google and Apple the mobile industry's "defining fight" during an onstage interview in New York yesterday.

At the heart of the fight is the Google-powered Android software for mobile devices, which has been the basis for Apple lawsuits against electronics giants like Samsung, claiming infringement on its patents.

Schmidt said there were already four times as many Android mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets made by companies like Samsung Electronics than similar Apple products.  He anticipated sales of more than one billion such devices within a year.

A temporary ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphones based on one such lawsuit issued in July was just lifted in Washington today, and the case sent back to a lower California court.

Schmidt once served on Apple's board while he was Google chairman, but according to the media friction developed as Android mobile sales picked up threatening sales of the iPhone and iPad.

Anyone with an iPhone 5 is probably aware of the most obvious sign of friction between the two tech giants:  the removal of Google Maps from the eagerly awaited iPhone 5, and its replacement with an inferior Apple version, Maps, which runs on the Apple iOS 6 operating system.

Google on Thursday expanded its Street View maps feature, adding over 250,000 miles of road, according to The Verge, in "the largest upgrade to service since its inception."  It's increased coverage in a number of countries including the U.S., Great Britain, and Sweden.

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Google in industry's "defining fight" with Apple, Schmidt says