Jobs hits out at Google

Steve Jobs has reportedly lashed out at Google for making its move into the smartphone market.

The Apple boss took the opportunity to degrade the company during a town hall meeting with employees at the company's One Infinite Loop headquarters.

An insider at the meeting told Wired that Jobs laid into both the smartphone move and Google's famous catchphrase.

"We did not enter the search business," said Jobs. "They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them."

Although another question was asked, Jobs added: "I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing. This don't be evil' mantra? It's bull***t."

This last comment reportedly received rapturous applause from the Apple employees.

The comments have come out just days after a mixed reaction to Apple's latest product, the iPad tablet computer. Jobs launched the device at an event in San Francisco last week but it wont be available in the UK until March.

We contacted Apple to confirm Jobs' alleged comments, but it had not responded to our request at the time of publication.