The smartphone market is dominated by two main operating system players — with Apple‘s iOS leading the charge in the mid-2000s and Google‘s Android following suit, only maturing relatively recently. But Steve Jobs took the news of Android’s launch personally, frustrated and betrayed at its development.
“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. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
Eating machines
The Apple chief was speaking with Walter Isaacson, his biographer, when he shared his exact feelings about Google’s development of Android.
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Published very shortly after Jobs’ death in October 2011, Steve Jobs was based on several exclusive interviews conducted over two years, alongside conversations with more than 100 people who knew the Apple co-founder.
One of the most spicy exchanges involved Jobs vowing to destroy Google for its work developing Android in secret, while Eric Schmidt was also serving on the Apple board. Schmidt offered to resolve the issues with a settlement, but Jobs took it more than personally.
Energy efficiency
Jobs was apparently angry after learning in January 2010 that HTC had introduced an Android smartphone with many of the same popular features in an iPhone.
Reports from the time the comments were made public suggest the episode reflected Jobs’ own perspective on a particular breed of profit-driven executives who only cared about making money.
Although iOS enjoyed a reputation for many years during the 200s of being a better platform in most, if not all, quarters, including its overall design philosophy, Android-powered smartphones were significantly cheaper. In the modern era, the Android OS is incredibly intuitive, with different smartphone makers usually looking to Apple for inspiration in designing features for their own custom flavors.
During his tenure as CEO, Tim Cook also pivoted on this approach, softening Apple’s stance and settling many of the ongoing legal disputes, including the long-running battle with Samsung.
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