Bill Gates Dismisses Criticism in Steve Jobs Biography
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2011— -- Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates dismissed criticisms of him by long-time competitor Steve Jobs in the new biography released after Jobs' death, saying "none of that bothers me at all," while praising the impact the Apple executive had on the world.
"Steve Jobs did a fantastic job," Gates told "This Week" anchor Christiane Amanpour. "When you think about why is the world better today, the Internet, the personal computer, the phone, the way you can deal with information is just so phenomenal."
In the biography "Steve Jobs," author Walter Isaacson quotes Jobs saying of Gates: "Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he's more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."
View Steve Jobs Through the Years
"Over the course of the 30 years we worked together, you know, he said a lot of very nice things about me and he said a lot of tough things," Gates said, reflecting on their work together on the software for the first Macintosh computer. "We got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all."
Gates said some of Jobs' frustration with him may have been caused by Microsoft's business success as Apple struggled for years, before becoming dominant in the last decade.
"He faced, several times at Apple, the fact that their products were so premium priced that they literally might not stay in the marketplace," Gates said. "So the fact that we were succeeding with high volume products, you know, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, it's tough."
"And so the fact that … at various times, he felt beleaguered, he felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys, you know, very understandable," Gates added.
