"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," Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson. "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."

Apple's feud with Google Inc. and device makers over Android smartphones and tablets infringing on Apple's patents has been public knowledge. But the depth of Jobs' fury at the search giant was only revealed by Isaacson in his bio, 'Steve Jobs', which was released Monday.

But with Jobs' gone and Tim Cook taking over Apple, which now has more than $80 billion in the bank, will and can the new CEO fulfill Jobs' plan of killing Google's mobile operating system?

Apple and Google used to tag team in a fight against software giant Microsoft Corp. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was a personal friend of Jobs and sat on Apple's board of directors. Samsung Electronics, the number one vendor of Android devices, is a key supplier of chips and displays for the iPad and iPhone.

But after Google jumped into the mobile world and had its Android open source platform emerge as the most widely used for smartphones, the two tech giants have been at war. Jobs has accused Google of ripping off many features of the iPhone and iOS (the platform for Apple's mobile devices).

Although it has not directly sued Google, Apple has filed numerous lawsuits against the top three Android device makers Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

With respect to Samsung, Apple has filed lawsuits against the Korean electronics giant in three continents, claiming that Galaxy devices are "slavishly" imitating the design and functionality of the iPad and iPhone. Courts in Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany have issued injunctions against the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and/or Galaxy S smartphones. There's a pending request to ban Samsung from selling its Galaxy line of mobile devices in the U.S. In September, Samsung said it will no longer allow Apple and others to have a "free ride" of its technology. Samsung early this month countered with a lawsuit seeking a ban on the sales of iPhone 4S in Italy and France on grounds that it violates Samsung's wireless patents. But so far, Samsung has not been able to obtain an injunction against the Apple devices.

Aside from Samsung, Apple has also pursued claims against Android device makers HTC and Motorola.

Google's effort to provide a "free" platform for mobile devices is being killed by rivals. Google is being forced to shell out billions in order to defend itself from patent litigation. And Google has said that the patents, which were meant to encourage innovation, are being used as a weapon to stop it.

Google is paying $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility. Motorola at one point led the market with its RAZR flip phones, but has not found the same success in the past five years. Motorola though has 17,000 patents on phone technology that can be used by Google as ammunition in patent litigation.

Apple is not alone in its fight against the Android.

Rivals have waged, in what Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond calls, "hostile, organized campaign against Android". In July, the search giant signed a deal to buy 6,000 patents of defunct telecommunications firm Nortel Networks for $900 million. But rivals Apple and Microsoft Corp., along with other tech firms not relying on Android, teamed up to outbid Google with a $4.5 billion offer. The year before a consortium formed by Apple, Microsoft and Oracle Corp. bought 882 patents of Novell, although it was disclosed that Microsoft had initially asked Google for a joint bid but the latter declined.

Aside from Apple, Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google for willfully infringing patents related to the Java programming language. Microsoft has demanded license fees from, and has signed patent agreements with, Android device-makers.

Ten Android device manufacturers (including Samsung HTC), accounting for 55% of Android phones and tablets, have settled with Microsoft.

But unlike Microsoft, Apple is not interested in collecting licensing fees and instead is seeking a ban of Android devices.

Isaacson's 630-page account of the Apple founder's life revealed that former Google CEO Eric Schmid, who served as an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009, tried to settle Apple's lawsuit against Google. But Jobs told him, "I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want."

A patent attorney for Apple told a court in Sydney last month that Jobs initiated contact with rival Samsung in July 2010 to resolve a patent dispute. But Samsung is the second largest supplier for Apple and Apple is Samsung's biggest customer, according to data on the Bloomberg. And despite the patent litigation, a report by Korea Times says that Samsung is still providing the chips for the iPad 3.

In the case in Australia, Samsung in dissuading an injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, revealed that Apple was willing to sell Samsung licenses for the infringed patents. But, according to FOSSpatents, a document filed by Apple indicated that while it may license lower patents, it plans to retain exclusivity for its most important patents.

Google's Android is now being used by almost 50% of smartphones and the platform already has its unique features and no longer appears like a poor rip-off of Apple's. But while Apple has recorded more than $22 billion revenue from the sale of iOS devices in the quarter ended Sept. 24, 2011, and Microsoft had revenue of $4.78 billion from its Windows 7 business, Google has not made as much money. Google doesn't charge directly for use of the Android OS but has an ad revenue sharing deal with device-makers. Android-related ad revenue for 2011 is expected to be less than $1 billion.

The licenses to Android users have come in cheap but it doesn't mean Google has not been accruing costs for developing, and protecting, Ice Cream Sandwich and other platforms named after desserts

Google is paying for litigation costs and is threatened by a minimum of $2 billion in damages sought by Oracle for alleged violations of Java's copyrights and patents in Android, according to Electronista, citing court filings by Google. And Google is paying $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility -- a business that lost $56 million in its most recent quarter and $137 million in the past six months -- just to get hold of patents that would protect itself against patent litigation.

The Apple-led nuclear war has hurt but has not killed Android or Google, for now. But when the final rulings are issued, and if Google and device-makers are ordered to pay up, then Jobs' vendetta against Google might conclude with the death of Android.

Given that Apple devices were based on technology developed by others, should new CEO Tim Cook pursue Jobs' plan to destroy Android? Or should Cook increase Apple's cash pile by granting licenses to Android device-makers?