Jobs warned Google to slash its products

San Francisco: Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs urged Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Page to sharpen the company's focus and cut products that put it at risk of becoming like Microsoft Corp, according to a biography of Jobs.

While Jobs was a vigorous competitor, he also came to view himself as an elder statesman with a responsibility for giving advice to Google's Page, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other emerging technology executives, according to Steve Jobs, an authorised biography by Walter Isaacson and published by CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster. It goes on sale October 24.

"I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby or being larded with B players," Jobs said of the meeting with Page this year in his living room. "Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning you into Microsoft."

Page, a co-founder of Google, sought the advice earlier this year, soon after he was named successor to Eric Schmidt.

Jobs told Isaacson that his first impulse was to refuse the request. Jobs had grown incensed over Google's foray into smartphones, a market Apple entered in 2007 with the iPhone. Jobs then reflected on how Hewlett-Packard Co. co-founder William Hewlett had helped him earlier in his career.

Jobs said he intended to advise other executives in the succeeding months.

"I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg, too," Jobs said. "That's how I'm going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay."

Jobs died on October 5.

The biography, based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs, also gives fresh insight into the executive's early interaction with Tim Cook, who later succeeded him as CEO and is now running the world's most valuable technology company.

Cook, after joining Apple Inc. in 1998, quickly gained the trust of Jobs, who had recently taken back control of the company. Jobs initially oversaw supply chain after he returned to Apple in 1997 following a 12-year hiatus.

By turning that responsibility over to Cook, Jobs was able to focus on product vision and broader strategy, instead of the nitty-gritty of manufacturing and purchasing the parts needed to build a growing array of products.