A preview copy of Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography of Steve Jobs’ life has been obtained by The Associated Press, who reported on some of the book’s highlights.
Among them, are the details of a meeting between Steve Jobs’ and Google’s Eric Schmidt that showed Jobs’ furious reaction to the release of a 2010 HTC Android model that shared many of the iPhone’s features. Jobs’ had told Isaacson that Google’s actions essentially amounted to “grand theft”.
“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.”
Eric Schmidt had reportedly offered Jobs “any amount of money” to settle out of court. Jobs apparently turned down an offer of $5 billion, instead telling Schmidt “I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson was originally titled “iSteve” and slated for a March release. Following Job’s recent death, the release date has been moved to Monday. Published by Simon & Schuster, The book will sell for $35.