Jobs had a complicated relationship with other tech luminaries. Despite his famous rivalry with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the two men, and the two companies, worked together on several occasions.
Similarly, Apple integrates Google services into several aspects of the iPhone, iPad, and Macs. But Jobs also harbored some animosity toward the search engine company. Android, he said, was Google committing "grand theft" against the iPhone.
During an interview about a patent lawsuit that Apple filed against Google, Jobs expressed frustration with his digital rival.
"Our lawsuit is saying, 'Google you ... ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off,' " he told Isaacson. "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," he added.