Steve Jobs Once Told Bill Gates Microsoft Had 'Absolutely No Taste' and the Tech Boss Fired Back, Saying the iPad Was Just a 'Nice Reader' — Years Later, One of Them Was Very Wrong
Despite serving different core markets, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) have long competed fiercely in operating systems, consumer hardware and enterprise software, leading to a history of rivalry between their leaders.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs likened Microsoft to fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) during a 1995 interview for PBS’s Triumph of the Nerds documentary series.
Jobs said Microsoft’s early success was fueled by IBM (NYSE:IBM), describing the tech giant as a “Saturn-5 booster.” He argued that co-founder Bill Gates capitalized on IBM’s decision to use Microsoft’s MS-DOS for the IBM PC while retaining licensing rights, allowing Microsoft to expand its business and “create more opportunity.”
“I know Bill (Gates) would get upset at me for saying this, but of course it was true,” said Jobs.
The Apple co-founder praised Microsoft’s business success, calling it “well deserved”, but criticized the company for lacking originality and prioritizing business over user experience, calling its products “very pedestrian” and saying it had no “spirit.”
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste, and what that means is I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way,” Jobs said.
He highlighted how Microsoft took a “big gamble” by writing application software for Macintosh, despite not being in that area of business until 1984. Jobs further stated that Bill Gates’ company wrote applications that were “terrible.” However, the Apple co-founder lauded the company for not giving up, improving on their work, and eventually dominating the Macintosh application market.
Gates Once Dismissed the iPad
Microsoft co-founder Gates, meanwhile, revealed that Jobs once told him he should have experimented with hallucinogenic drugs to make Microsoft products more appealing, reflecting their longstanding differences in creativity and product design.
Gates praised Steve Jobs’ exceptional design and marketing abilities, joking that he got the “coding batch” while Jobs got the “marketing-design batch,” adding that he envied those skills and wasn’t in Jobs’ league.
However, Gates, just like Jobs, downplayed a particular Apple product. In 2010, he said the newly launched iPad was a good e-reader but believed devices combining touch, voice, a pen, and a physical keyboard would become mainstream.
“It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it,” said Gates, reported Tech Radar, citing his interview with the now-discontinued web magazine BNET. The Microsoft co-founder, however, stated that he did not feel the same about iPhones.
Despite Gates’ skepticism, the iPad became a major success. Apple sold more than 300,000 units on launch day, surpassed 10 million sales within its first year, and exceeded 100 million units sold by late 2012.
This prompted Microsoft to launch the Surface lineup in 2012 after its earlier Tablet PC efforts had failed commercially. Today, the Surface Pro has established itself as a strong competitor in the tablet market.
As of Apple’s latest earnings, iPad sales brought in revenue of about $6.2 billion out of the total quarterly revenue of $109.42 billion.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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