10/9/2019 Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Inside the rivalry | Internet | Al Jazeera

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates:

Inside the rivalry
Allies, rivals, partners: How two tech visionaries inspired the digital revolution and changed the lives of
billions.
31 Jul 2017 07:18 GMT Science & Technology, Internet

Editor’s note: This film will be removed on September 20, 2019.

On May 30, 2007, two of America's most brilliant minds, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates,
sat down for a joint interview at the All Things Digital Conference. The two pioneers of
the computer world spoke fondly of the other's contribution to technology.
But what preceded this historic exchange was more than three decades of rocky
collaborations and rivalry. Gates and Jobs had battled to dominate a new age and, in
the process, revolutionised billions of lives.

"Though they never worked in the same company,

they created an industry together, and we have a
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hippie and a nerd ... With Bill, it was always about the
money. With Steve ... money was nice, but it was
never about the money. And so that made them black
and white. Up and down. Hot and cold. They were
very, very different people," says journalist Robert
Cringely, who worked with Gates and Jobs in the
late-1970s.
So what was the rivalry between Jobs and Gates all about?

Allies: Microsoft and Apple

In the 1970s, the computer world Steve Jobs was a much
consisted of enormous machines, better marketer than Bill
super computers that only the Gates was. But he was
largest companies could afford. It not really that technical.
was a market dominated by the
He was not a technical
US multinational IBM.
code writer. Bill Gates
A native of Seattle and son of a well-off family, Bill
Gates created computer programmes and software could write code and write
during his high school and university days with his good code.
friend, Paul Allen. They dropped out of Harvard and
founded Microsoft in 1975.
In Palo Alto, California, another duo emerged: Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two high school students
who were obsessed with new technology, established Nolan Bushnell, electrical engineer and

theApple computer company in businessman, founder of Atari

April 1976.
While Microsoft created BASIC, software that sold to
all major computer companies, Jobs and Wozniak invented the first personal
computer. In the spring of 1977, they unveiled the Apple II, the first PC designed for
the general public.
Sales were phenomenal, but the Apple II had a serious handicap, and Gates had the
solution: BASIC.
The complex relationship between Gates and Jobs began, and in the late-1970s,
Microsoft made most of its money writing software for Apple.

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Jobs stands beneath a photograph of him and Apple-cofounder Steve

Wozniak from the early days of Apple during the launch of Apple's new 'iPad'
in San Francisco on January 27, 2010 [Reuters]

Hand in hand: Building the Mac

In 1980, Apple went public. Meanwhile, Gates signed a lucrative contract with IBM:
His new computer operating system, MS-DOS, would run all IBM computers.
"Maybe the smartest thing he ever did in computer business was that he got IBM to
sign a deal that gave him a one-time payment, but allowed him to license it to other
people who might clone IBM's PC. IBM did not really think anybody else was going to
successfully clone their PC, so they didn't care," says journalist Walt Mossberg.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Jobs and Gates were

still under 30, but they were the two key players in a
rapidly expanding industry.
Microsoft and Apple worked hand in hand for the first few years of the Mac, with Jobs
in the spotlight.
"We were not competitors at all at that point. They were our allies at helping making
the Macintosh happen. So we got along very well with them, they were similar to us in
many ways," says Andy Hertzfeld, a former Apple employee.

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However, knowing that the Mac's renowned graphical user interface represented the
future of personal computers, Gates worked on cloning the Mac.

Rivals: Windows, Toy Story and two billionaires

When Microsoft launched the first The only problem with
version of its new operating Microsoft is they just have
system Windows, it was the end of their no taste. They have
collaboration.
"There was a pretty strong disagreement when
absolutely no taste ... I
Windows came out ... Of all of the things that have have no problem with their
happened between the two companies, that was the
thing that upset Apple the most ..." says former success ... I have a
Microsoft president, Jon Shirley.
problem with the fact that
Within 10 years, Windows 95 was they just make really third-
installed on almost all computers rate products. Their
on the market. With Windows 95, products have no spirit to
Gates and the PC dethroned the them.
Mac, and the geek from Seattle
became the richest man in the
world. Steve Jobs about Microsoft, 1996
Microsoft's success and mediocre Mac sales brought
out an authoritarian side in Jobs, causing rifts within his
own company.

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"It came down to eventually ... a war between [CEO] John Sculley and Steve Jobs.
And in the end, because Steve Jobs had actually burnt out so many people and
created so much animosity and fear about himself, when the board came to vote, it
was almost like the entire company voted that they would rather not have Steve Jobs
around anymore," says Bruce Damer, the curator of the DigiBarn Computer Museum.
Soon after his eviction from Apple in 1985, Jobs created a new company: NeXT. But it
wasn't successful.
Jobs got back on his feet by investing in Pixar, a computer-animated film company. In
1995, Toy Story was the first fully computer-animated film to be released. It became a
blockbuster and paved the way for Pixar's global success.
"Steve ... grabbed the moment and took the company public. Based on nothing. We
had basically no cash. We just had this movie and the New York critics said it was
going to be good ... He took that idea and sold it. He took Pixar public and became a
billionaire overnight," says Pixar cofounder Alvy Ray Smith.

Steve Jobs demonstrates the speed of the new Macintosh G4 Computer

using an animation trailer from Toy Story [Alan Dejecacion/Getty Images]

Partners: Creating the i-world

More than 10 years after Jobs' I think he [Bill] was
departure, Apple was on the verge somewhat jealous of the
of bankruptcy. great success of the iPod
In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple. and then iTunes ... That
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"Something happened at NeXT that did change Steve

... For the first time, he began to care about profit and
was a ... very brilliant thing
loss. He began to care about success, business to do because it just
success. He turned into a businessman, which he had
never been before. He became a little more like Bill started changing the way
Gates," says Cringely. people viewed electronic
A year after his return, Jobs announced a partnership devices.
with Microsoft, which included an $150m investment in
Apple.
Jobs climbed to new heights, developing the iPod, the
iPhone, and the iPad.
Jon Shirley, former Mircosoft president
"It was no longer this sort of, 'I'm in the shadow of Bill
Gates' ... Apple's become this enormously successful
company ... Apple does more business in iPhones than
Microsoft does in total business. And they're the most
valuable company in the world now," says Shirley.

Gates appears on video screen at the 1997 Macworld Expo where Steve
Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with
Microsoft [AP]

Peaceful rivalry
Gates decided to leave Microsoft and work full time at the foundation that he heads
with his wife, Melinda, instead.

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"Steve Jobs didn't change the world. Steve Jobs

capitalised on a lot of things. Bill changed the world.
Bill made software what it is today. If Bill hadn't
created the standards, MS-DOS, Windows, and was
very dogmatic at making sure those standards took
hold, we wouldn't have the technology we have today
... Globally, he impacted the world in terms of what he
did with software. He decided to do the same thing in
philanthropy," says former Microsoft marketing
executive Rowland Hanson.
In May 2011, Gates visited a dying Steve Jobs - a final farewell between the two men
who shaped the computer world, transformed technology, and changed the way we
live.
"He and I - in a sense - grew up together. We were within a year of the same age and
we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies, and most of it as rivals,
but we always retained a certain respect ..," says Gates.

Jobs turned Apple into the world's most valuable company [Reuters]

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Source: Al Jazeera

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