Raging Jobs vowed to "destroy Android"

Former Apple boss pledged to spend vendor's "every penny" pursuing makers of "stolen product"

Steve Jobs believed Google had committed "grand theft" of Apple intellectual property and vowed to spend all Apple's money, if need be, working to "destroy Android".

The former Apple chief's authorised biography, written by Walter Isaacson and released today, reveals the extent of Jobs' ire towards the makers of an operating system he regarded as "stolen". Apple has had legal run-ins with a number of Android smartphone manufacturers, most notably Samsung. Isaacson's book finds that Jobs intended to wage the patent war to the bitter end.

An extract obtained by the Associated Press reads: "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40bn in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. They are scared to death because they know they are guilty.''

The release of Android in 2007 seemingly drove a wedge between Apple and Google, and between the two firms' leaders at that point: Jobs and Eric Schmidt. The Google boss was a member of Apple's board at the time, but resigned in 2009 as the vendors became increasingly competitive.