Jobs Schmidt Cafe

Steve Jobs was “willing to go thermonuclear war” against Android

Posted Oct 21 2011 by Scott Webster in  with 23 Comments



Steve Jobs hated Android.  Did you know that?  Oh, okay, but did you know how much he hated it?  According to the AP, who obtained an early copy of the upcoming Jobs biography, he believed that Android was tantamount to “grand theft”.  What’s more, he was ready to spend every penny of Apple’s fortune to right the wrong committed by Google and its partners.

A passage from “expletive-laden” interview with Walter Isaacson tells us that Steve became enraged when HTC introduced a handset in early 2010 which was perceived to steal many of Apple’s products or services.  After later meeting with Google’s Eric Schmidt at a cafe, Jobs said he was not interested in settling the lawsuit, instead wanting Google to “stop using our ideas in Android.”  The meeting obviously went nowhere and now we see the start of all the lawsuits.

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”

I’ve got nothing but respect for Steve Jobs as an innovator, inventor, and technical genius.  The problem I had with him was his hypocritical stance (below) that it was okay for Apple to sample/steal from others but when it’s done to him, he got enraged.

We saw just this summer that Apple is still introducing technology and hardware that previously exists on other platforms.  It’s tough to convince me that you don’t borrow or steal from Android when you are introducing folders and notifications in the  4th and 5th iterations of your platform.

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AP Via MacRumors

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

 

 

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About the Author

Scott WebsterScott founded AndroidGuys on November 5, 2007 and has been hooked ever since. His other mobile efforts can be found on AndroidAtlas (CNET) where he covers Google's mobile platform. When not obsessing over phones and tablets, Scott can be found listening to house music, watching the Green Bay Packers, or catching the latest movie.View all posts by Scott Webster →

  • http://twitter.com/EliNeuNim Eli Martinez

    “It’s tough to convince me that you don’t borrow or steal from Android
    when you are introducing folders and notifications in the  4th and 5th
    iterations of your platform.”

    You have a point.

  • LiterofCola

    “Last dying breath” huh?  How did that work out for ya?

  • Anonymous

    I have lost respect for him long time ago.

  • Anonymous

    I hate Steve Jobs. This just shows what a tool he was. I’m glad his “last dying breath” was taken knowing that Android had more market penetration than IOS.

  • Anonymous

    Phaq Jobs, glad the Butt Plug is gone…Pretty funny though can you say “Hi Pot im Kettle”.  Apple has stolen ideas and more.

  • Anonymous

    Android is a rip off of iPhone? iPhone ripped off Palm OS anyways, so anything Jobs says is useless. It just shows you how Jobs is a monopolist at heart. He’s uninterested in licensing even for $5 billion, he just wants the competitor out of the race. He’s a monopolist who never gave to charity, unlike Bill Gates who plans to give 95% of his wealth to charity. Why are people who never met him so sad that Jobs died again? He was a greedy man. Soldiers more honorable than him die often, I don ‘t see the masses mourning them. Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean it changes the truth and makes him a saint. He’s human like the rest of us.

  • http://www.steveedson.co.uk Steve Edson

    This is the same guy that said “Good artists copy, great artists steal” - www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

  • Yu Liu

    tsk ,tsk, Steve Jobs and his evil empire…

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  • Prime

    Well his last dying breath was taken knowing Android was still gaining momentum. I’m kinda glad he’s out of the picture in a way, all those lawsuits just made Apple look like a bunch of jack asses. I still have respect for the guy, he knew how to sell his shit, but he often came off as a crazy hypocrite with all the suing.

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  • Anonymous

    Each to their own. Thanks to Steve Jobs the bar was raised with mobile phones and as a result we have a great Android product that has just bore 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as all the other manufacturers had to “UP” their game.

    Steve jobs was a business man and as such would try his best to get rid of the biggest threat. He and his team did have some great ideas, but like all businesses purchased the rights to others, i.e. Siri.The real innovators are seldom rewarded or acclaimed publicly, their ideas are usually purchased by the larger conglomerates and re-marketed.
    Thank you Steve jobs for your innovations, but remember the same game that you complained  had been played by Apple for years too.

  • Anonymous

    Things like capacitive screens and multitouch were not Apple inventions or even Steve Job’s inventions for that matter. Apple may have released products with said technologies first, but that hardly gives them the right to tell other companies that they can’t release phones and tablets that have even the slightest similarities to the iPhone or iPad. Android doesn’t violate any Apple patents. Samsung didn’t copy any of Apple’s products. Not with TouchWiz and not with their hardware designs. Google and Samsung took Apple’s ideas and made them better. That’s not stealing and it’s not against the law.

  • Anonymous

    I guess Jobs lost the bet

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  • Irish Yort

    This coming from a guy that basically ripped off the CBM Amiga OS all those years ago. Maybe he needed to reflect a bit more on how he started to make a name for himself and Apple after the E2.

    For us old enough to remember, these comments about using someone elses ideas to make money are ridiculous considering what Apple has done during it’s first few years of life in the big world of electronics and computing!

  • Anonymous

    I’m still confused as to what everybody was “copying” from him.  The only thing Apple is creative about is what they patent.  I mean seriously GESTURES???!??!   I should patent the turning motion I use when using the steering wheel in my car or make a new keyboard called the “Think Different Gaming Keyboard” and patent the wsad configuration for playing games.

  • Anonymous

    Can anyone say Xerox?

  • Anonymous

    Can anyone say Xerox?

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