By Jo Best, 18 February 2005 14:30
NEWS In an interview with a US TV channel, Microsoft head honcho Bill Gates has been sharing his thoughts on arch rival Steve Jobs and Redmond's contribution to the computer industry.
Speaking with ABC News this week, Gates said he didn't own an iPod and he doubted recent reports that some 80 per cent of Microsoft employees on the Redmond campus owned one of Apple's iPods.
"I doubt that's the case. Certainly, the iPod's a great success," he said but added he predicts Apple's dominance won't last.
"Oh the iPod did a great job but what Apple's done there is typically what they do. It's their, only their one music store, only their device... So it's like the Apple computer versus the PC. With the PC you can buy from many companies so you get cheaper prices, you get more variety and here with music devices we're coming in with the same. But they're a strong leader in the space and I think as we gain share, people will be surprised," he told ABC News.
As well as complimenting Apple's popular music player, Gates went on to compliment Apple's CEO.
"Steve Jobs [has] done a lot of amazing things in our business," he said.
While doffing his cap to a number of Microsoft's rivals, Gates wasn't quite so humble in describing Microsoft's role in the technology industry.
"We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry," he said. "The whole idea of compatible machines and lots of software - that's something we brought to computing."
Gates also revealed that he hopes Microsoft's software will become even more ubiquitous than it is already.
"Anywhere that we can have software work for somebody and make them more productive, help them stay in touch. We're going to write software for them. So we do software for watches, for phones, for TV sets, for cars. And some of these take a long time to catch on. In fact it's just this last year our software for cable systems, for TV watching, has really gotten a lot of customers and we have [been] working on that for over 10 years," Gates said.
"The biggest thing we did was we invented the field."
You can read the full transcript of the interview here.
Comments
There are 34 comments. Join the discussion
1. George Eakin
MS did not create the PC industry. What bs! MS just happened to be the player on top. The industry would have grown with or without MS. They were no blessing to PC's anyway. MS has unfortunately created a lot of problems with that could have been avoided because of their practices and software standards.
2. anonymous
You can say much about MS, but innovation is not one of them.
MS locked in custommers 15 years ago with Windows and Office, since then almost everything that came out from MS is failures. MS never was and will never be the driving force of the industry, thank's God for Steve Jobs, at least MS will be busy copying something.
3. Tim Foster
If Microsoft are planning to write software for other devices, such as cars, does that mean our cars will crash as often as our Windows PCs do?
4. Angus Doyle
I have to disagree with my friend here. Microsoft played a key role in the PC market. PC (Personal Computer).. this is the key word here. Bill Gates and friends had a vision of seeing every household with a PC, before microsoft; computers were very hard to operate and not suitable for the population at large, until they introduced the DOS operating system to IBM it was then that the dream was realised.
Perhaps the industry would have grown, but not as fast and as successful without microsoft. I have to respect Bill Gates and his forward thinking that allows me to work in the industry that I truly love.
Simply without Microsoft do you think that most of the population would be operating software like UNIX Shell. Microsoft introduced the GUI in the form of windows. They gave us the Windows and the Mouse. Granted some bods at Xerox came up with the Idea. Ironically the bosses at Xerox thought the idea not worthy, again Microsoft seen the future in these devices and brought it to the masses.
Therefore Microsoft can claim they indeed created the PC industry which we have today and I say WELL DONE!
5. David Tebbutt
CP/M was the first standard PC platform for mass market software. Gates, as ever, is rewriting history to suit himself. And, I guess I shouldn't mention that PCDOS/MSDOS actually originated from Seattle Computer Products as QDOS, a CP/M knock-off for the 8086 processor.
6. Michael Foggin
"It's their, only their one music store, only their device... So it's like the Apple computer versus the PC. With the PC you can buy from many companies so you get cheaper prices, you get more variety and here with music devices we're coming in with the same"
Disengenuous at best and at worst an out and out lie. I have an iPod and I have bought tracks from iTunes in AAC format and I have also bought tracks from Bleep (Warp Records) in MP3 format which are prefectly playable, as are WAVs and AIFFs. It doesn't natively support WMAs anymore than a Creative Nomad supports AAC's, but since converters are freely available that will transform preety much any format into another its an irrelevant argument. You buy from the cheapest/best source in whatever format suits you best.
7. Stanislav Dmitriev
Poor me! I alwais thought the PC industry was created be IBM and Intel :(
Really the two should sue Billy!
8. Steve Johnson
It's good to know some people still have a good grasp of the facts. What did QDOS stand for:
Quick and Dirty Operating System. Mr Gates' luck was in because Gary Kildall was playing golf the day IBM came to call. To kill time they went visit Microsoft who unlike Digital Research, didn't have a suitable operating system. Bill's solution was to buy QDOS and rename it. The rest is history.
9. David Cantrill
I'm sorry Angus. Microsoft invented the mouse and GUI. Please. I bet you probably think Wintel was the first platform to adopt PCI and SCSI. Apple had as much to do with creating the PC market as anyone. And yes, they came out with the first working GUI (Xerox actually didn't have moving windows, and the mouse was crappy at best). And yes, Apple were the first to integrate PCI and SCSI (not to mention several other hardware technologies) into a consumer PC. It is because of Microsoft that we accept substandard operating systems and applications. Let's not even talk about open standards.
10. John Hauxwell
David T. hit the nail on the head there. All Gates did was buy the building blocks.....
11. Roger Huffadine
Angus sounds like a youngster.
The PC industry was flourishing before Microsoft came on the scene. Apple and Commodore were doing an excellent job.
When the IBM PC did arrive it was easier to sell the PC to corporate customers because of the badge. At the time the Commodore Amiga was streets ahead in terms of colour and user interface and the Apple was superior to the PC in both user interface and functionality - but as a [very successful] hardware/software developer we took the IBM route purely because of the IBM badge.
The disadvantage with Apple at that time was all of the separate boxes that clients would displace [knock onto the floor].
So IBM won the day mainly because the whole concept of PCs was new and "You never get fired for buying IBM" was the watch phrase.
Microsoft merely stole ideas [and I believe IPR] from - Wang, IBM, DEC, Apple and Commodore to hack together and inferior architecture whose legacy we suffer today.
12. Fred Astaire
I am no fan of Microsoft - anything but and I always use the Microsoft product as last choice whenever possible. But you have to credit Bill with something - certainly not creating the PC industry, which as others have said he did not. What is he good at and what did he do? Bill is an entrepreneur, who frankly has missed nearly every new technology that came along from windows-based systems (note the lowercase w) right through to the internet. What he has done is spot trends when they are established and with financial muscle, dirty tricks and everything else that we know about, make sure that he wins. Microsoft is now in the position that IBM was in when, as someone pointed out earlier, nobody ever got fired for buying IBM (Microsoft).
So they are the evil empire and governments, major corporations etc have to bow their heads, get down on their knees and pay their Gates-taxes. When will someone realise that major software companies could be built if only corporations, governments etc got together and pooled their resources to create sotfware that didn't require us all to bow to Bill.
13. Michael Fischer
Microsoft was an important player in the development of the PC industry, though of the scale of Bill's imagination. Paul Allen's Microsoft Basic was a popular and important development that was central to the 'appliance' computers offered by Commodore and Tandy, and most other 'prebuilt' computers such as the Ohio Scientific efforts. Bill Gates had enough vision to harness Paul Allen, just as Steve Jobs motivated Steve Wozniac. But other than their basic, Microsoft had a fairly lackluster catalogue until they made the deal with IBM that was to change the world, and almost not as nice or productive a world as we might have had should IBM have chosen the 68000 chip or Kendall chosen not to snub IBM believing he was the only game in town.
One of the problems with Gate's ascendancy was that he actually believed he possessed an acute technological vision. Due to gross business errors on IBM's part he gained control of the platform that most businesses adopted, but was unable to deliver to a standard that was representative of the PC community of the time, and this pattern of failure remains to this day across their entire product line.
If one really wants to identify who 'created' the PC industry, once we get past the necessary unfairness associated with such tasks, it would probably be either Digital Corporation, and their PDP 4, which were available from the late 1960s and the focus of a very robust user group, or Dan Bricklin and his VisiCalc, the first PC killer application that made microcomputers relevant outside the hobbist community.
14. Angus Doyle
David..
I never said microsoft invented the mouse I stated that it was invented by Xerox. Microsoft was about prior to all the computers you mentioned. I think it was July 1980 that Microsoft's Bill Gates and IBM sat down to discuss the new operating system for there Personal Computer. Actually IBM coinded the phrase Personal Computer with there much loved brand name IBM PC, therefore the term PC was actually invented by IBM and GATES.
Computers like the Amiga and the APPLE II lacked usability, it was over complicated and only appealed to die hard computer fans.. therefore giving birth to the term NERD and GEEK and all the stigma that followed over the years.
On August 12th 1981 IBM in collaboration with Microsoft launched the "Personal Computer"
Microsoft also invented the idea to have the Basic language coded into the ROM of personal computers, every machine after the IBM pc including the AMIGA included Basic on the ROM. Therefore computers of that day modelled the IBM PC.
Microsoft then Bought the rights to QDOS(OS Based on CP/M) and after such MS-DOS was Born.
Savvy minded Gates convinced IBM that Microsoft retained the rights to MS-DOS and so the Microsoft Story Begins. We can all rag on microsoft for their business practices, but they are at the top of there industry, how many of you would like to be in that position?
No one can deny in sound mind that Microsoft are a major contributor the PC market, there business Model and is envied and admired by all major corporations around the Globe.
Where would you be today without it?
15. Ian Hartas
CP/M came before DOS. GEM came before Windows.
Gary Kidall's Digital Research Inc should have more credit here.
Need I say more ?
16. anonymous
Some bloke with dancing shoes on wrote:
'When will someone realise that major software companies could be built if only corporations, governments etc got together and pooled their resources to create sotfware that didn't require us all to bow to Bill.'
Just think of it - an operating system that works like the NHS! A word processor that is as efficient as the Child Support Agency!! A spreadsheet that is as accurate as Gordon Brown!!! And no doubt a search engine that could find Weapons of Mass Destruction (even when they aren't there)!!!!
Gates' software has its problems, but if IBM had run the show, you would need a ten million dollar IBM-370 to write a letter, you would be charged by the number of cells used on a spreadsheet (say, a couple of cents each, plus 3 cents for each recalc), and you would need to write 50 lines of OS/VS2 and type them onto a punched card to copy a file.
For what you get, MS stuff is pretty cheap and works mostly tolerably well.
That 'major corporations and governments' could jointly produce anything worth having flies in the face of ALL experience.
17. Mark Cooper
I don't happen to be a particular 'fan' of Microsoft, but one thing we all must recognise is that they could not have got into the dominant position they enjoy without the 'buying public' having voted for them (with their wallets) in the first place.
To a large extent, where the ideas came from originally no longer matters. Microsoft have built their position based on accessibility to what people want.
OK, Gem was around when Windows started, and CP/M was around when DOS was conceived - but who could buy them, and where from (and what for)?
I slag off Microsoft all the time because there is other software out there that does the same job, sometimes (but not always) better, for less money; but, at the end of the day you have to acknowledge that Gates and Microsoft saw a market opening and directed their business towards filling it, and did the job so well that it is now difficult for other companies to gain a foothold in the same market.
You could draw an analogy with Formula One racing, where Schumacher now wins eeverything because he is just so talented at what he does. OK this makes the sport rather boring to watch, and makes it difficult for everyone else involved to build a reputation, but you have to acknowledge the achievement. As it is, the FIA are re-scoping the sport to allow other (less talented) competitors the opportunity to beat Schumacher, just as the computer industry is attempting to re-scope the Microsoft business plan by legislation to prevent 'unfair competition'.
18. Michael Fischer
Angus - The invention of the mouse is credited to Douglas Engelbart who demonstrated it in 1968. Not Xerox, but the Stanford Research Institute. Xerox may have coined the term 'personal computer" in 1972 (Alan Kay, but ... the OED gives the origins to Byte Magazine in 1976, But Stuart Brand used it in a book in 1974. However, the winner seems to be the ad writers for the HP 9100A in 1968 although we would probably classify this as a calculator [credit for this to Fred Shapiro]), not IBM in 1980. IBM trademarked the term "PC" standing for personal computer. It is not clear that they originated this term, although this is possible. In any case this did not involve Gates.
Gates was able to make his monumental deal with IBM to retain rights to MS-DOS because IBM saw DOS as a temporary measure until they could replace it with a 'real' operating system.
The HP 9830, released in 1972 (possibly the first desktop all in one personal computer) had a basic in rom, so Gates doesn't get this innovation gong.
Where would we be without Microsoft? In a world with more powerful computers, that were more stable and possessing higher security, and didn't contribute so much to the wasteage of human resources we experience today.
19. Steve Booth
So, Mr. Gates invented "compatible machines and software", huh? Leaving aside any PC-based arguments on this, what about the IBM-mainframe compatible machines and the vast software industry built around them that had been around since the 1960s? Or does Mr. Gates not look upon mainframes as real computers?
20. Steve Farkas
Angus wrote:
No one can deny in sound mind that Microsoft are a major contributor the PC market, there business Model and is envied and admired by all major corporations around the Globe.
Where would you be today without it?
Working on a much better operating system from someone else.
21. BRUCE BOWMAN
let's see "multitasking" HELLOOOOOOOO
AMIGA! extended memory and graphics
real time video effects YOU GOT IT!
22. Kerry Galloway
I like the comments from Mark Cooper. It is sad that no one seems capable of getting another OS out to the world without crying about Microsoft and Bill Gates being to big to take on by themselves and moaning for governments to hobble the giant so they can get a blow in.
Steve Booth wrote "what about the IBM-mainframe compatible machines and the vast software industry built around them that had been around since the 1960s?" What IBM-compatible mainframes would that be? IBM barely let out enough information to allow 3rd parties to make printers and storage! No way was there any such beast as an IBM-Compatible mainframe or software from any one but IBM! Why do you think they were called Big Blue!
23. Bob Emmett
And Gates didn't even invent extensions to standards in a bid to trap their customer base, witness the multiplicity of mainframe COBOL dialects.
24. Shum
I totally agree with the statement. Many gadgets came amd went but the PC is enduring mainly because of what people can use it for and that credit goes to Microsoft for making PCs compatible via common Operating systems. Imagine how much more we have to pay to use proprietary OS based PC.
25. Paul Goldstone
I used computers at college (15 years ago) and they were a nightmare. I didn't particurlay like them and had no interest in them. Then I got a Pentium 100 with windows 3.1. It was great. Without windows most home users would not have bothered with computers. Windows was easy and friendly.
Anyone who goes to work in an office from school will probably use windows/office. As they learn this at school and probably have one at home, it saves time and money in training people.
26. Angus
Mr Booth with respect, the conversation was about personal computers (PC) a mainframe is hardly a personal computer.
Nobody has mentioned anything about Microsoft owning or indeed inventing the mainfram industry.
27. Michael Fischer
Who created the PC industry...
Ignoring the fact that the PC industry in the broad sense dates back to at least 1974...
1) IBM created the reference platform.
2) Phoenix reverse-engineered IBMs BIOS so that other manufacturers could produce IBM-compatible computers.
3) There were a large number of OS available for the IBM reference platform, MSDOS was not the worst. But it was not the best. OS9, OS 2, DR DOS, DR Gem, Geos, Xenix (distributed by MS under license) to name a few, all of which were technically superior to MS DOS.
4) Even if you do not accept that these were technically superior, all were capable of creating a 'compatible' computing environment if users had adopted them.
5) MS retarded these competitors by creating specific incompatibilites between their software and these operating systems. This practice was eventually declared to be illegal.
6) MS damaged sales of other OS by requiring vendors to pay for DOS for each machine they built in order to get DOS at all. This practice was eventually declared to be illegal.
7) Microsoft was the eventual market winner in the OS sweepstakes for intelisque type processors on reference hardware.
8) However, any of the other OSes could have servered to provide the same degree of inter-reference-computer compatibility.
So we can conclude that Microsoft dominates in providing software and operating systems for the largest hardware segment, and, their illegal acts aside, they deserve credit for this, especially given their inability to match others on quality grounds. But then Walmart is the largest employer in the USA.
Microsoft was unnecessary to 'create' the PC industry. If Gates had not had the nous to quickly by QDOS and get back to IBM and indicate he had an OS after all, IBM would have gone back to Digital Research or gone with OS9 and we would still have an industry. Microsoft and Gates created nothing, but have had a hell of a ride. And given us hell in return.
28. anonymous
What??? Bill? Come back to reality man!? Steve Jobs saw the STAR GUI at Xerox PARC and stole it for the MAC. It was Microsoft that stole it from Apple. Ah, theft of ideas....ain't it grand!
29. Robert Morrisette
The mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1968.
Gates never invented anything.
30. Trevor Morton
Self-aggrandizement (on this scale) is a step down a slippery slope. History shows, its starts from a fallacious notion and ends in delusion. Make no mistake, MS is a dangerous monopoly.
31. Ran Talbott
Angus, though obviously too young to remember the early days, should at least be able to do a google search that would turn up the fact that the use of the term "presonal computer" preceded IBM's announcement by at least 5 years, and that Apple was advertising the Apple ][ (which included BASIC in ROM) as a "personal computer" before IBM even _conceived of_ its PC project.
IBM's PC was merely their version of a concept that was already well-established by Commodore, Tandy, Apple, and others.
And Windoze only "introduced the GUI" to people who weren't already using MACs and other machines that predated it.
But, yes, I do owe Bill something: without Microsoft, I would've missed out on 15 years of horror and amusement at the plight of people suffering the effects of a series of abortions that still haven't achieved the levels of reliability and security I enjoyed throughout the 1990s with OS/2. And, if MS hadn't succeeded in killing off OS/2 with their criminal activities, I might still be using it, instead of switching to an OS that I can run on everything from PDAs and embedded systems to my laptop and desktop machines.
32. mike
nice site
33. Jamie Smith
'Microsoft created the PC industry' - Bill Gates.
'Ummm... No, you didn't' - Pretty much everyone else
Despite the age-old arguments regardng irresposible and unethical business practices, Microsoft has, like it or not become the largest single entity in the computing world. That doesn't mean that it 'created' the PC Industry. Gates caused ripples in the Computer Hobbyist's world by insisting that there was a commercial possility for computers, but without the hardware how would his products have eer survived? Unless IBM developed the PC clone, how big a success would MS-DOS have been?
Where is the cedit for the Altair 8800, which he and Allen created BASIC? What About Apple? Lets not forget the Xerox PARC guys, who created not only the first MicroPC, but also the first operating system with the GUI interface that enabled the populous to really _use_ computers, rather than command-line based operating systems.
I think I see where he is coming from, his was the one of the first companies to sell software, but without the hardware in the first place, Microsoft would not be here today.
He'll be claiming that the X-box was the first home-entertainment device next... jeez!
34. john allen
The mouse was invented in the 1960's
by Douglas Engelbart.
He invented or contributed to several interactive, user-friendly devices: the computer mouse, windows, computer video teleconferencing, hypermedia, groupware, email, the Internet and more.
In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface (GUI), 'windows'. Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels (computer mouse U.S. Patent # 3,541,541) in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." "It was nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end," Engelbart revealed about his invention. His version of windows was not considered patentable (no software patents were issued at that time), but Douglas Engelbart has over 45 other patents to his name.
Throughout the '60s and '70s, while working at his own lab (Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute), Engelbart dedicated himself to creating a hypermedia groupware system called NLS (for oNLine System). Most of his accomplishments, including the computer mouse and windows, were part of NLS.