As it turns out, Eric Schmidt's resignation from the Apple board yesterday wasn't enough to please the FTC. According to Reuters the Federal Trade Commission intends to continue investigating the Google/Apple board situation. There is still one person, Arthur Levinson, who sits on both company's boards.

Levinson has yet to recuse himself from one board or the other, although Consumer Watchdog has urged him to make a choice as well. It's anyone's guess as to what Levinson will choose to do, but he'd better make a decision quickly. Apple has enough on their plate with the recent FCC investigations into their App Store policies. The last thing they need is a probe over one of their board members.

Of course, it should be obvious to federal regulators that a system of healthy competition exists, and is growing, around Apple and Google. While the two companies have colluded very successfully in the past, they've found themselves in conflict increasingly over the last several years. The most recent such conflict has been over the Google Voice app for the iPhone 3GS.

Now that Schmidt is off the board, it's possible that the 'friendly' rivalry between both corporations could heat up into something uglier. Apple and Google are both involved in many of the same types of gadgets and software. When no ties bind them any longer, it's only natural that they'll both bump heads a bit more.