Walter Isaacson, the man who wrote last year's bestselling biography of Steve Jobs, has said that Apple's "less emotional" new boss Tim Cook will most likely settle a dispute with Google over the Android mobile operating system.
In a revealing interview this week, Isaacson also suggested that Apple will attempt to revolutionise the television and digital photography industries over the next few years.
He further claimed that Jobs will ultimately be held up alongside the great inventors, such as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
Speaking at London's Royal Institution yesterday evening, Isaacson discussed both the "petulance" and "exuberance" of Jobs, who died last October after losing his fight with pancreatic cancer.
Published last year, Issacson's Steve Jobs book revealed that the creator of the iPhone and iPad had threatened to "destroy" Google Android for allegedly copying Apple's iOS.
After being asked about a report that Tim Cook, Jobs's successor as Apple chief executive, has scored higher in terms of satisfaction among Apple employees, Isaacson responded by saying that "popularity contests were not Steve's forte".
He said that Cook is a very different leader to Jobs, and this means that he would most likely look to settle the legal row with Google over Android, rather than drag it out in the courts.
"Steve was furious when he saw Microsoft stealing the Mac OS interface and licensing it to every PC maker who paid for it. So when Google licensed its Android mobile operating system so promiscuously to junkie handset makers he was determined to act," Isaacson was quoted as saying by PC Advisor.
"Steve said to Google 'You can't pay me off. I'm here to destroy you'. But Tim Cook will settle that lawsuit. He's a lot less emotional about business than Steve."
After Steve Jobs became the bestselling book on Amazon last year, Isaacson is now writing a history of the digital technology revolution.
Under Jobs, Apple changed the game for MP3 players, smartphones and tablet computers - and Isaacson hinted that the company will seek to revamp the digital photography and television industries "within the next two years".
"Apple has revolutionised industries so that we get what we want, when we want it, personalised for us. Television does the opposite," he explained.
Apple is widely rumoured to be working on a new internet connected TV set for launch either this year or in 2013, while the firm also recently introduced new digital imaging service iPhoto for the high resolution iPad.
Despite the loss of Jobs, Isaacson feels that Apple will still create more great products as it has "the world's greatest industrial designer" in Sir Jonathan Ive.
The writer described Jobs as "the most intense, emotionally charged person you could ever meet", but denied that the tech pioneer suffered from a form of Asberger's Syndrome.
"Steve wasn't kind. He was brutally honest. But he was intensely emotional and cried many times when we talked," said Isaacson
"He was at the opposite end of the scale to Asberger's. His products prove that he could emotionally connect to people unseen."
Isaacson also claimed that in 100 years Jobs will rank alongside the great investors, such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, as having changed key products forever.
"Steve Jobs is a greater genius than Microsoft's Bill Gates because he has transformed multiple industries," said Isaacson.
"Computers, music, desktop and digital publishing, retail stores, telephones and digital animation, were all changed forever by Steve Jobs."
