Steve Jobs says 'it's fun Microsoft is copying Mac again' 




"To the adoring Mac-o-lytes who come to hear Apple CEO Steven Jobs's feel-good keynote speeches each year, the Redmond software giant is still the Evil Empire," Peter Burrows writes for BusinessWeek. "Old hatreds may die hard, but they're certainly diminishing... When Jobs splashed a photo of a gangly Bill Gates from a 1984 brochure for the just-announced Mac during his Jan. 5 keynote, hearty chuckles were heard. The crowd even listened politely as a very nervous Microsoft exec stammered through a demo of Microsoft's latest version of Office for the Mac."

"And what about Jobs's own feelings for Gates? They've mellowed as well. He talked to the Microsoft honcho last summer, he says, but they're both too busy with kids to stay in touch more often. When Apple unveiled a version of its iTunes music player to work with Windows last fall, Jobs sent Gates a $200 gift certificate to try it out. 'I'd set him up with a monthly allowance, but he doesn't need it,' Jobs joked in an interview with BusinessWeek at the time. He never heard back from Gates, but there's no hard feelings," Burrows writes.

"That's not to say Jobs is above taking digs at his long-time nemesis. In the same interview, he argued that Apple's Macintosh operating system software has reopened a big lead over Windows in terms of innovation. 'Apple is once again two to three years ahead. Microsoft is copying us again, and it's fun!' he said. 'I often used to tell Bill that we were the cheapest R&D they could get ever get.' As for Microsoft's upcoming Windows makeover, called Longhorn, Jobs says it'll only catch up to Mac OS X, which is now four years old. While most analysts figure Longhorn won't hit the market until 2006, Jobs thinks it could be 2007. 'Their biggest challenge is just to get it out. Things have been known to slip.' If he's right, then Microsoft will be six or seven years behind Apple. 'That's an improvement on the 10 years it took them to copy the original Mac, but it's still a lot,' Jobs says," Burrows writes.
 

Posted: Thu - January 8, 2004 at 04:37 PM        

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