There is an interesting story about the late Steve Jobs hated Android. How did it start that the Apple founder wanted to launch a 'nuclear war' on the green robot operating system?
"I will take my last breath if necessary and I will spend all of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to justify this mistake. I will destroy Android because it is a stolen product. I want nuclear war for this," Steve Jobs said in his official biography which written by Walter Isaacson.
Jobs told Isaacson that Android's resemblance to iOS was a big theft. At that time, Apple had sued several Android-based phones for being accused of plagiarizing the iPhone.
Whereas before the launch of Android, Apple had a good relationship with Google. Google products such as search engines and maps are an important part of the Apple ecosystem.
At that time, Eric Schmidt, who was the CEO of Google, even became a member of Apple's board of directors. Eric and Steve Jobs' relationship was close and often discussed. Eric served on Apple's board of directors from 2006 to 2009.
This figure of Eric helped integrate Google services into the iPhone. Even so close the relationship between Apple and Google, Eric once joked that the two companies should unite and just name it AppleGoo.
"Steve Jobs, congratulations from me to you. This product will be hot," Eric congratulated Jobs at the launch of the first generation iPhone.
But all that changed when Google launched Android, which was first announced at the end of 2007. About a year later, the first Android phone called the HTC Dream was born.
This is where Steve Jobs really got mad. So, Apple has launched many lawsuits, for example on the multitouch feature on Android which is considered a clone of iOS.
"We're not into the search business. They're getting into the cell phone business. Make no mistake, Google wants to kill the iPhone. We're not going to let them," Steve told Apple employees.
Steve also once met Eric at a cafe where they ate together. Steve says he doesn't want anything from Google other than to stop copying iOS.
"I don't want your money. If you offer USD 5 billion, I don't want it. I have enough money. I want you to stop using our idea on Android, that's what I want," Steve told Eric.
Eric himself denied that his relationship with Steve Jobs was damaged because Google launched Android. "As part of me joining Apple's board of directors, we understand that Apple and Google will be partners and also competing companies," Eric said as quoted by Forbes, Saturday (11/6/2022).
"And we agreed that if we became more competitors than partners, it would be right for us to separate. Steve and I are still good friends and I have great respect for his extraordinary leadership," he said at the time.