Steve Jobs: ‘Android is a stolen product and I will spend my last dying breath destroying it’

Steve Jobs was the kind of man who did things his way. He had a lot of pride in his company’s products and his character was typically a serious one… the type of guy who can hold a grudge.

Even so, his true hatred for Android—now surfacing post-humously—will shock many.

It would of course be expected that Apple isn’t exactly on hugging terms with Google after the latter launched Android post-iOS. But now, as details from Walter Issacon’s forthcoming authorized biography of Steve emerge, it becomes clear that Steve had a burning passion for the competitor—or, in his eyes, thief. 

The emotional quote that the Associated Press obtained really makes one think:

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.

Apple shows no signs of letting up on Android lawsuits and actually has double the cash in its bank now. Whether or not Android can actually be “destroyed” remains to be seen but I certainly would surrender if it got to the point of thermonuclear warfare.

The book is called Steve Jobs: A Biography and launches this Monday. It was originally called iSteve: The Book of Jobs but that working title was not deemed very Apple-like.

Steve officially authorized this biography—a first for the legend—but never got a chance to read it.