On a jaunt to Paris yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt whipped out his iPhone in public, waved it around and proclaimed it a "powerful new device".

The Apple board member, whose iPhone had already been glimpsed as he sat an watched Steve Jobs' Worldwide Developers Conference keynote last week, was speaking at a mobile communications event in Paris yesterday.

"iPhone is a powerful new device and is going to be particularly good for the apps that Google is building," he said. "You should expect other announcements from the two companies over time."

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iPhone Googles, Maps

Schmidt apparently even went as far as to use ringtone effects in his speech, a move designed to illustrate the importance of mobile phones to Google's continued success.

The iPhone, launching in the US on 29 June, will incorporate search and mapping technology from Google and allow for calls to be made directly from Google Maps.