Jobs Biography Shows ‘Thermonuclear’ War Against Android
The book, which hits stores Monday, is discussed in an interview with Isaacson on "60 Minutes," and advance copies have gone out to the press.
According to the biography, Jobs made a decision to delay by nine months his surgery for pancreatic cancer. During that time, the Apple co-founder and CEO tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies, and other alternative treatment -- including consultation with a psychic.
Jobs is quoted in the book as saying that he "really didn't want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work." He finally had the surgery in July 2004.
In early 2010, when HTC introduced a smartphone running Google's open-source operating system Android, Jobs hit the roof, Isaacson reported. Jobs told Isaacson that Android amounted to "grant theft" because it ripped off many of the features of the iPhone.
"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," Jobs told Isaacson, "to right this wrong." Jobs made it clear he was out to "destroy Android," and he made it clear to Eric Schmidt, the former Apple board member who is CEO of Google, that he didn't want to settle.
"If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it," he's quoted as telling Schmidt. "I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android."
This background about Jobs' attitude comes as Apple has won several patent-infringement battles against Android in Europe...
