8333 The Telegraph reports that Bill Gates commented this week (also quoted here: http://www.macworld.com/article/146355/2010/02/gates_ipad.html ) that, unlike the iPhone, Apple's iPad was not a device he wished he'd made, while Steve Jobs has, in the past, been highly critical of Microsoft. The newspaper goes on to cite some of the best quotes from both men referring to the other or thie companies respectively.

One of Bill's nicer comments comes from early on in 1984 when he observed that: "To create a new standard, it takes something that's not just a little bit different; it takes something that's really new, and really captures people's imagination. And the Macintosh – of all the machines I've seen – is the only one that meets that standard."

On the other hand, in 2009 Gates' wife, Melinda, let slip in an interview that "There are very [few] things that are on the banned list in our household, but iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."

Steve Jobs has likewise at times been pretty hard on on Microsoft. One choice quote that The Guardian unfortunately chose not to cite in its entirety was a 1996 gem (http://www.pbs.org/nerds/part3.html - scroll down) that I've always thought summed up the overarching problem with Microsoft products rather well:

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste, and what that means is - I don't mean that in a small way I mean that in a big way. In the sense that they they don't think of original ideas and they don't bring much culture into their product ehm and you say why is that important - well you know proportionally spaced fonts come from type setting and beautiful books, that's where one gets the idea - if it weren't for the Mac they would never have that in their products and ehm so I guess I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success - I have no problem with their success, they've earned their success for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third rate products."

You Tube video clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upzKj-1HaKw

Jobs added a year later that "I wish [Bill Gates] the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."

Also waxing philosophical in 1994, Steve observed that "If you say, well, how do you feel about Bill Gates getting rich off some of the ideas that we had ... well, you know, the goal is not to be the richest man in the cemetery. It's not my goal anyway, although he did allow that "I think Bill Gates is a good guy. We're not best friends, but we talk maybe once a month. I think Bill and I have very different value systems. I like Bill very much, and I certainly admire his accomplishments, but the companies we built were very different from each other."

A fair, albeit obvious observation, I think.

For the full Telegraph piece, click here:
http://tinyurl.com/ybudtlg


Charles W. Moore

Tags: Blogs ï Commentary ï

Login † or † Register † †