Ironically, by going head-to-head with Google in yet another arena, mobile advertising, Apple may have handed its estranged best friend victory over the US antitrust authorities. Google’s planned acquisition of AdMob is under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but Apple’s launch of its own mobile ads system, iAd, proves there is plenty of competition in the market, argues Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Carrier oriented solutions like Alcatel-Lucent’s new Optism could strengthen his argument further. The FRC is assembling an internal litigation team to mount a challenge to the $750m AdMob deal, says the Wall Street Journal, citing the usual ‘sources familiar with the matter’. Apparently, the FTC has also sent letters to AdMob’s competitors requesting sworn statements about…