Bill Gates on Steve Jobs 1998: a lesson for Dems

[alfredo]

“What I can’t figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? ” wondered Bill. “He knows he can’t win.”

http://www.cringely.com/2010/04/masters-tournament/

It is easy to see what Gates meant if you look at a comparison of the two companies in June, 1998. Microsoft stock was around $29 with a market capitalization of $250 billion. Apple’s stock was at $7.25, triple what it had been a year before when Microsoft had stepped-in to bolster Apple with a $150 million investment, but still worth a market cap of only $6 billion. In terms of products, market share, cash flow, and general strategy Microsoft had it all over Apple in 1998 and the idea that Jobs would ever catch up to Gates was, at the time, ludicrous.
But look at the two companies today. Jobs is still running Apple despite cancer and a liver transplant while Gates has moved on to saving the world at the Gates Foundation. Microsoft is worth $240 billion, a tiny drop from 12 years ago, with the shares now around $27 (down from $29). Nothing gained in more than a decade. Apple shares, on the other hand, have gone from $7.25 to almost $240, Apple’s market cap has risen more than 33X from $6 billion to $220 billion. And Cupertino’s cash hoard today is almost exactly the same as Microsoft’s at around $40 billion.
It’s pretty easy to argue that Jobs did win. Certainly Apple has the mojo lately with its string of home run products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. Even Mac market share is up in the double digits and Apple’s profit margins are the best in the industry. The trend line is definitely up for Apple and mildly down for Microsoft.

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Michael Dell (R- Tx) suggested Apple shut down. "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

Apple is up 500% since April 2005, Dell has dropped into negative growth. Microsoft is flat.

Both Dell and MS have lost value since Jan 2001, Apple has gained over 2,500%. So while Apple was being mocked, they stuck to their game plan and have succeeded.

Not too long ago the GOP was predicting death for the Democratic party.

For us Dems we need to learn from Apple. We need to continually look for the best talent, give them a clear vision, and push the good ideas with vigor. The politician is the hardware, and policy is the software. The policy ads value to the politician just as the software adds value to the hardware. They should work together seamlessly.

Find the winning strategy and don't wimp out.

[Loki]

1. I bought my first Mac in 1996

and I've never looked back. Thank you Steve Jobs.

[alfredo]

3. He didn't become conservative as he aged. Of course it

could be the cancer has lit a fire under his ass and he wants to live to see his strategy played out to its conclusion.

[arcadian]

2. Apple is going for that futurey, Star Trekky thing.

[alfredo]

4. And everyone else is going for "Battlefield Earth."

[thelordofhell]

5. As Steve goes, so goes Apple

When Jobs quit, Apple went down the shitter. When he came back, Apple went through the roof. There is no way this company will survive without him.

[4lbs]

6. Jobs "won"? I see the article writer missed the part where Gates had MicroSoft bail out Apple with

a $150 million investment. The part where Gates appeared, shades of "1984", on a gigantic screen at the 1997 MacWorld Expo, while Jobs personally thanked Gates for the investment and end to their battle in front of thousands of stunned attendees and press corps.

That investment also saw an end to the Mac vs PC Motorola-vs-Intel battle, as well as the office suite and browser wars between the two companies that saw Apple draining it's cash reserves in the vain fight back then.

This allowed Apple to refocus it's efforts on the series of 'i' products (iMac, iBook, iTunes, and the iPod), as well as switch away from the Motorola RISC architecture and standardize on the Intel CPU, PCI bus, and USB connections. Apple computers are now essentially PCs running OS X.

Oh, and MicroSoft recouped double it's investment 4 years later.

[alfredo]

8. I believe that investment was MS's hope of keeping anti trust suits at bay.

It didn't work. I think Jobs convinced him that even an appearance of competition would look good when the DoJ came knocking. Remember too, it was non voting stock that MS bought.

Gates appearing on the screen was not lost on the audience. It was quite funny.

As far as product launches, MS never really got it right. I remember their first foray into plug and play resulted in a blue screen of death. Balmer's monkey boy dance was another embarrassing moment. MS marketing was lacking too. They were mere novices compared to Apple/Chiat-Day. MS also lacked a Jonathan Ive in the design department. Their UI has improved, but still lacking. It's gone from butt ugly to Meh.

MS's success killed their stock. They hit a plateau and stayed there. Nobody wants a boring stock, and MSFT became dull dull dull. Their attempts at new markets and revenue streams never really met the success they hoped for. The Zune was a bad idea poorly executed. MS makes a nice mouse, but there's not that much money there. The XboX was a good move, but the ring of death reminded us of their inability to get it right the first time.

I did like working in DOS. Once you got the key combos down, you could fly. Nothing gets in your way. Data entry on Windows was a pain, but that probably had a lot to do with the design of the database.

For so long MS did everything right, then all of a sudden everything they touched turned to shit.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. MS wasted years on Vista

The "New Coke" of operating systems.