TIMELINE: For Apple and Google, friendship leans to rivalry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Silicon Valley giants Google Inc and Apple Inc have lived in a state of friendly coexistence for years, as each grew to be leaders in their respective arenas.

But Eric Schmidt, chief executive of search leader Google resigned from the board of the iPhone and Mac computer maker on Monday, as Google increases its presence in Apple's markets for operating systems, browsers and applications.

Their history as friends goes back many years.

September 1997 -- Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is named interim chief executive of the struggling company, which had racked up losses of more than $1.8 billion in its last two fiscal years.

September 1998 -- Google is incorporated. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin hire company's first employee.

August 2001 -- Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Novell, becomes Google CEO.

March 2003 -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a senior adviser to Google, joins Apple's board.

October 2004 -- Google sets plans to make a version of its Google Desktop program for Mac computers.

August 2006 -- Schmidt joins Apple's board of directors.

January 2007 -- Apple announces iPhone, says it will include Google's Maps application at launch in the summer.

March 2007 -- Asked if Google plans to make a phone to compete with the iPhone, Google CEO Schmidt says: "I will tell you that Google and Apple are doing more and more things together through the normal course of communications .... We have similar goals and similar competitors."

November 2007 -- Google announces Android, an open source software platform for mobile phones. It aims to expand the range of Web services it offers computer browsers to the mobile phone market.

July 2008 -- Apple's iPhone 3G launches with Google's first downloadable iPhone app.

September 2008 -- Google Chrome, a free, open source browser, becomes available for download. Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer still dominates the market, but Chrome may challenge other browser's including Firefox and Apple's Safari.

September 2008 -- T-Mobile announces the G1, the first phone built on the Android operating system.

May 2009 -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission launches an inquiry into whether the ties between the boards of Apple Inc and Google Inc violate antitrust laws. (Former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson is still a director of both companies.)

July 2009 -- Google announces the Google Chrome Operating System, new software that will be in netbooks for consumers in the second half of 2010.

August 2009 -- Schmidt quits Apple's board of directors, and is praised by Jobs for "investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful." Schmidt says of Apple: "It's a fantastic company. But as Apple explained today we've agreed it makes sense for me to step down now."

(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Richard Chang)