Steve Jobs si Bill Gates au fost pentru o foarte buna perioada de timp presedintii unora dintre cele mai puternice companii din lume si s-au aflat in competitie directa pe mai multe piete. Desi in aparenta cei doi nu erau chiar atat de apropiati, realitatea este ca Bill Gates l-a ajutat pe Steve Jobs sa salveze compania Apple de la faliment si de atunci relatia dintre ei s-a intarit. In ultimul sau an de viata Steve Jobs a avut mai multe intrevederi cu fostul CEO al Microsoft, acesta scriindu-i lui Jobs o scrisoare in care vorbea despre insemnatatea relatiei dintre ei.
I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know…There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no [cause for] forgiveness.
Intr-un interviu acordat ziarului britanic The Telegraph Bill Gates a vorbit despre Jobs dar si despre scrisoarea trimisa acestuia, scrisoare pe care Jobs a tinut-o langa patul sau pana in ziua in care a parasit aceasta lume. Desi biografia lui Steve Jobs lansata la doar cateva saptamani dupa decesul sau nu il pune pe Bill Gates intr-o lumina buna, fondatorul Microsoft pastreaza respectul fata cel care a fost cel mai prestigios CEO al companiei Apple si unul dintre vizionarii Americii.
“Steve was an incredible genius who contributed immensely to the field I was in. We had periods, like the early Macintosh, when we had more people working on it than they did. And then we were competitors. The personal computers I worked on had a vastly higher [market] share than Apple until really the last five or six years, where Steve’s very good work on the Mac and on iPhones and iPads did extremely well. It’s quite an achievement, and we enjoyed each [other’s work]….He spent a lot of his time competing with me. There are lots of times when Steve said [critical] things about me. If you took the more harsh examples, you could get quite a litany.
