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Jobs and Gates Chat Amicably
Posted by
kdawson
on Thu May 31, 2007 11:23 AM
from the sittin'-in-a-tree dept.
from the sittin'-in-a-tree dept.
circletimessquare writes "As noted, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs met at the D conference yesterday. AllThingsD has video of the entire convivial and historic meeting — check the highlights clip. When a reporter asked if their rivalry was overblown, Jobs offered up this joke: 'We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade' — to an apparently flummoxed Gates. Other tidbits: 'His mother loves him!' said Gates about PC Guy in the famous series of commercials. 'And we love them because they're all customers!' said Jobs about Microsoft employees working on Zune who use the iPod. Read more about the event, which also covered a lot of serious ground, such as Apple's iPhone, at CNN and the Times Online."
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Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage 210 comments
Rob wrote with a link to a Computer Business Review online article, which reports that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Apple chief Steve Jobs will make a joint
appearance at a future technologies conference in Carlsbad, California. The event is expected to last a little more than an hour, and the two computer industry magnates are expected to reflect on their pasts - while theorizing on the future. "[WSJ Tech columnist] Walt Mossberg, a co-producer of the conference who will interview the execs on-stage along with colleague Kara Swisher, said they simply invited Gates and Jobs to do the interview ... [Mossberg] declined to give any color about the questions he and Swisher are preparing, or any additional information. Most likely, Gates and Jobs will use the occasion to do some friendly sparring on their polar-opposite philosophies on personal computing. Jobs may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach, while Gates may rattle off the joys of partnering with hardware partners."
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What did you expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think some were expecting fire, wrestling, and a Mortal Kombat style finish. It's not the job of these head honchos (even though Gates isn't really chair anymore) to bash the other guy. Especially not in public.
They leave that for the marketing folks.
Re:What did you expect? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Fixed!
Re:What did you expect? (Score:5, Funny)
Fixed!
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Re:What did you expect? (Score:4, Interesting)
Lesson: sputtering halfwitted rage is for idiot fanboys. The people who actually make things base their self-esteem on what they accomplish, not on how insanely they hate someone else.
On the contrary, there are many feuds between high-level execs I could name, some of whom worked together, some of whom were rivals. Some of those feuds get to the rage level. The difference is the savvy ones realize that they can't show it in public, and maintain a calm, even witty demeanor.
That observation has no bearing on this particular pair of executives, however.
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Re:What did you expect? (Score:5, Interesting)
And that's why Microsoft's shareholders really need to kick Ballmer to the curb.
-jcr
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Re:What did you expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
That was pretty big of Gates. He went up in my estimation for that.
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Re:What did you expect? (Score:4, Insightful)
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*Brain explode* (Score:5, Funny)
I'm just impressed they found a venue big enough (Score:4, Funny)
Other topics not broached (Score:4, Funny)
Behind the scenes (Score:5, Funny)
Jobs dressing room:
Jobs in the background squeezing the head off a Bill Gates bobblehead doll... "As a kid I broke more windows than an urban problemed child on ritalin in an abandoned factory full of windows and an endless supply of rocks. I hate you [infiltrated.net]"
Gates dressing room:
"Who thought it would be funny to send me Apple pie? I want him DEAD! I want his family DEAD! I want his house burned to the GROUND! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and I wanna PISS ON HIS ASHES! (Untouchables movie quote)
Conspiracy... (Score:4, Interesting)
Am I making sense, or is this just pure flamebait?
Skip the highlight reel (Score:5, Insightful)
Mac vs PC ad (Score:4, Funny)
http://i17.tinypic.com/52ax05t.jpg [tinypic.com]
Winston Churchill Said it Best (Score:4, Interesting)
Why would they care? (Score:5, Insightful)
Both Apple and MS could go bankrupt tomorrow and Gates/Jobs would still have more money that they could ever spend. It's easy to be magnanimous when you are untouchable.
Neat. (Score:4, Interesting)
Note to interviewers: SHUT UP! When you ask a question and the guy is trying to answer, quit trying to get your stupid little Friends-esqu quips in. NO ONE is there to hear you speak. Quit trying to be the life of the party. Example: watch Steve TRYING to tell his story at the 5:40 mark in the highlight reel and the inane banter at around 6:15.
Re:Bill Gates (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Amicably? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:They don't hate each other (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm very tired of hearing this - because it has no basis in reality.
In 1997, Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple's non-voting stock. They sold this stock earlier this decade. Apple did not need cash at the time - the company had over $4 billion in the bank, but was losing money each quarter. They didn't need $150 million in stock sales to keep them afloat, and such a stock sale certainly couldn't be characterized as a "much needed cash infusion". It was a vote of confidence in Apple by Microsoft - a PR move and little more.
The most important announcement made on the same day was that Microsoft would continue developing Microsoft Office for the Mac. This announcement was important to Apple's future in a way that a simple $150 million stock sale simply couldn't be - it sent the message to customers that the key to productivity software compatibility for Mac users would remain updated and supported.
The most important announcement not made that day was that Apple and Microsoft settled a rather serious suit over Canyon Software's appropriation of Apple's QuickTime code, which was used by Microsoft and shipped in Windows Media Player. The suit could have been worth quite a bit more than $150 million - and would have led to a protracted court battle and some very embarrassing revelations about Microsoft's business practices during the government's antitrust investigation of the software giant.
PLEASE stop repeating the canard about Microsoft "giving" Apple a cash infusion. It's not true, and never was.
Parent
Re:They don't hate each other (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/10/29/microsoft
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Re:Cryptic Comments (Score:4, Insightful)
Definitively:
This has nothing to do with Spindler's "ship with a hole in the bottom" comment. The "ship that leaks from the top" is CEOs and VPs who blab about future products to the detriment of current, shipping products while admonishing the vast majority of employees not to leak product details.
When I joined Apple in 1995, we had to watch a security video. It schooled us about export control, "tailgating" through badged entryways, and not talking about product details with the press, friends, etc. It was silly to expect employees to keep their traps shut while they watched Diesel Spindler yak about upcoming products like the PowerBook 5300 which would have "unprecendented speed and battery life". (It didn't.)
The ship that leaks from the top comment is simply a jibe at the days of Sculley, Spindler, and to a lesser degree, Amelio - braggadocio CEOs who represented the "old way" of doing things at Apple, and who didn't hold themselves to the same standards they expected of their employees.
Sculley used to talk about pie-in-the-sky projects like the Knowledge Navigator, Newton, etc. well ahead of the projects actually, you know, working. Spindler was too stupid not to let stuff slip about future product direction. And Amelio talked up future products and strategies in order to keep the company relevant.
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Re:credit card (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, credit card applies for you!
Parent