An upcoming book called Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, may be the most candid biography of the controversial Apple co-founder to date. Jobs granted dozens of interviews for the book, the last one just weeks before his death. And among many other things, the book reveals Jobs' intense hatred for Google's open-source operating system. Apple has launched numerous lawsuits against companies that build Android devices, and gotten imports of Android gadgets banned in several countries already.
Here's how it all started, and where it's gone so far.
January 2010: HTC releases the Nexus One, the first flagship Android smartphone created in co-operation with Google. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the iPhone, and would soon be given the iPhone's pinch-to-zoom multitouch capability. According to Isaacson's book, "Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google's actions amounted to 'grand theft'" and said he was "willing to go thermonuclear war" and spend all of Apple's money to destroy this "stolen product."
March 2010: Apple sues HTC for the first time, citing the multitouch patent plus 19 others. Even though Google created Android, HTC was liable because it created the smartphone and sold it. In a statement, Jobs said that Apple's "competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours [Apple's]."
October 2010: During an earnings call, Jobs segues into a 5-minute public rant about the shortcomings of "fragmented" ecosystems like Android's, compared to Apple's "integrated" approach.
July 2011: A consortium that includes Apple and Microsoft beats Google in its bid for the Nortel patent portfolio, including 6,000 patents related to wireless technology. United States patent law allows companies to buy and sell patents, and then sue other companies for violating said patents as though the buyer had invented the original. This month, the International Trade Commission also made its initial ruling against HTC, which could lead to an import ban against HTC Android devices before the end of the year.
October 2011: Apple's separate, worldwide lawsuits against Samsung lead to a ban on imports of several Samsung devices in Australia, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Australia is now the second country to ban Samsung Android devices.
Jobs is famously quoted as having said that "Great artists steal." But the current state of patent laws allows for a "winner-take-all" game, in which the powerful stay on top and can tax even those who come up with the same inventions on their own ... or destroy them, as Apple is doing to Android.
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