The entire tech world is aware about the hatred that Steve Jobs had for Android - especially from the biography. As much as he wanted to destroy Android because it is a stolen product. Recently though a new book called Dogfight has mentioned a Jobs episode of Rubin hate.
Earlier from his biography the hatred was quite evident, "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."
According to the Dogfight, Jobs didn’t like the former Android head Andy Rubin either, calling him a “big arrogant f**k.” Back in 2005, Google had acquired Andy Rubin's startup Android and the company was set to release its first Android phone by the end of 2007.
However, when Rubin saw 2007 keynote of Jobs where iPhone was introduced, he realized that Android wasn't yet good enough to compete with Apple's iPhone. So the team went back to the drawing room later releasing a device that looked somewhat similar to iPhone.
This proceeding didn't go well with Apple's founder Steve Jobs of course who then had high-level meetings with Larry Page and Andy Rubin:
“It got incredibly personal,” says one Apple executive who was briefed by Jobs on the meeting. “Jobs said that Rubin was steamed, telling him his position was anti-innovation. And this is where Steve was demeaning to Andy, saying Andy was trying to be like him, look like him, have the same haircut, the same glasses, the same style.”
Apple got what it wanted from the meeting. Google didn’t do multitouch features like pinch to zoom. It forced Google to change how it was going to make the phone unlock. Not only did Jobs tell Google what it couldn’t use, but according to Vogelstein Jobs told Google how to take things out of Android. It was a complete capitulation from Google.
After this meeting, Rubin reportedly had put a sign in front of his office that said “STEVE JOBS STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY.”
You can get Dogfight - written by Fred Vogelstein - from Amazon.
