Steve Jobs used to like Larry Page and the guys at Google, until they went and made their own smartphone operating system by copying iOS. Steve Jobs was livid. He threatened “to go thermonuclear war” on Google over Android, and the relationship obviously soured.
Now that Larry Page is the CEO of Google, he’s got a lot to worry about, but Steve Jobs’ thermonuclear threats haven’t seemed to bother him. In an interview with Wired’s Steven Levy, Page was asked about competition, and Jobs’ threats of war, but rather than going on an anti-Apple rant, Page’s answer was pretty calm, cool, and collected.
Wired: Steve Jobs felt competitive enough to claim that he was willing to “go to thermonuclear war” on Android.
Page: How well is that working?
(mic drop)
Page restrained himself from expounding on the thermonuclear war, but it seems that he’s pretty happy with the way the battle has played out so far. Android’s popularity has swelled despite Jobs threats of thermonuclear war and it’s now the most popular mobile operating system in the world. iOS hasn’t done too shabby either though.
When pressed later about the competition between Android and iOS, Page would just say that they’re very happy with the success of Android. He didn’t even have anything mean to say about Google Maps getting pulled from iOS. You can read the full details of the Larry Page interview, including some trash talk about Facebook, over at Wired.
Source: Wired
