Google vs Apple the industry's 'defining fight': Schmidt

San Francisco: Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expects more than a billion mobile devices around the world to be running its Android software within a year, intensifying a battle with Apple Inc that he called a "defining fight" of the industry.

Schmidt said there were already four times as many Android mobile gadgets - smartphones and tablets made by the likes of Samsung Electronics - and that the scale of their battle was unprecedented.

"We've not seen ... competitive fights on this scale," he said during an interview with tech blog AllThingsDigital broadcast from New York.