Steve Jobs on Bill Gates: 'Basically Unimaginative'

[amirm]

I have a lot to say on this topic but have some chores to do first . But thought I share this well-written article first: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395106,00.asp#fbid=Fdu7T9_lXhT

Agreements? Disagreements?

 

[Steve williams]

Sounds correct to me

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

I wouldn't call either one of them "inventors" because the two harsh assessments in the article, that Gates "shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas," and "Apple's iconic products like the iPod and iPhone is that the company didn't invent such technologies as portable music players and multitouch screens—it just refined and repackaged them" are, on the most fundamental level, true. But it's not that fundamental.

Gates bought the idea that launched him - PCDOS. And the argument can be made (and has been, successfully) that Windows was just a slightly different refinement of Star, not a rip-off of Mac OS. Beyond that, he fits the assessment of Apple better than himself. Excel was a little better than Lotus 123. Word was arguably a refinement of Worstar. Outlook...ok, Outlook sucks. It's hard to argue with that unless you like a mailbox full of crap.

Apple? I think what they did with Xerox Star, touch technology, MP3 players, online music, pads and pods and smartphones goes way beyond "refined and repackaged," and I think the numbers, the absolute market share dominance (without a monopoly in a key market like corporate users) in several of those categories, proves it. But really, I don't think any of those things are Jobs' legacy. His legacy, and his success are all about an unwavering commitment to the customer experience, IMO. A lot of companies, in a lot of categories, could profit learning Jobs' lesson.

And I'm sure Jobs would have said nice things about Bill if he had died first. That's our kindest form of hypocrisy.

Tim

 

[NorthStar]

I think that if these two guys were just simple mortals instead of PC High-End Guru status, with financial assets to back them up...;
at the end they are actually just two simple guys not more different than you and I.

Well, yeah, they have/had their own passion, and they surrounded themselves with the tools and the people to fulfill them passion.

Our original 'drive' in life, most often than not, takes a bigger turn when the financial aspect becomes big part of the equation.
I think. And even more so when it has to do with a product developed in the interest of mass people.

Look at what all the technology is now doing in this world; it rids countries of their dictators.
{Syria: cell phones with video cameras, laptops, Skype, Facebook, Youtube, ...}

 

[ack]

I have a lot to say on this topic but have some chores to do first . But thought I share this well-written article first: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395106,00.asp#fbid=Fdu7T9_lXhT

Agreements? Disagreements?

Complete agreement from me... it's what I've been telling my staff for years, with proof of copying of ideas all along the last 20 years. But then again, Gates or MSFT are not alone - look at what Google is currently and has been recently doing.. .copying others' ideas.

 

[MylesBAstor]

The comments may strike many as ironic, as Jobs and Apple are often criticized for taking the fundamental ideas for what became the Macintosh computer from the Xerox PARC system. A common criticism of Apple's iconic products like the iPod and iPhone is that the company didn't invent such technologies as portable music players and multitouch screens—it just refined and repackaged them.

This was the paragraph that I was looking for. The pot calling the kettle black. Jobs may have been brilliant at his work but it doesn't mean he wasn't a nut job like Howard Hughes

 

[JackD201]

I credit Bill Gates as the inventor of true viral marketing. He let the world go to town on pirated MS software to achieve rapid market dominance and enforced MS's rights afterwards. It was genius.

Hey Amir, did you catch the interview of the Harman CEO saying "We want to be the Apple of our (audio) industry." ? I thought of you immediately