Google Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt refuted Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs' allegations that the Android copied the iPhone iOS saying the former was developed first before the latter.

Schmidt made the statement to reporters in Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday in reaction to Jobs' biography quoting him as saying that Google copied features of the iPhone iOS to develop the Android, which is now the world's most popular mobile platform.

"Most people would agree that Google is a great innovator, and I would also point out that the Android efforts started before the iPhone efforts. And that's all I have to say," Schmidt said, according to Reuters.

In the biography book by Walter Isaacson, Jobs vowed to "destroy" Android until his "last drying breath."

"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," Jobs, who died on Oct. 5 from pancreatic cancer, said in the book.

The Android operating system for smartphones traces its roots to the software company Android Inc. founded by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White in 2003. At the time, the four only said they were developing a software for mobile phones and kept their work secret. When the firm ran out of cash, the founders were forced to sell the company to Google in 2005. Google continued to employ the founders, who developed a mobile device platform powered by the Linux kernel, which eventually became Android.

Apple's iOS was unveiled on Jan. 9, 2007 and released on June of the same year, according to Wikipedia.

Schmidt became a member of Apple's board in 2006, less than a year before the launch of the iPhone, but resigned in 2009 due to increasing competition between his company and Apple, according to CNET.