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Bill Gates on Innovation

Nathan Weinberg — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:58:37 +0000

Bill Gates met with some bloggers Tuesday, and Jonathan Snook decided to go at him with the age-old question about whether Microsoft is an innovator, or a bullying copycat.

Gates proved that underneath the ill-fitting shirts and the underwhelming stage presence lies a strong debater who can disarm even the toughest of questions with facts and humor.

To quote a bit from the transcript, Gates is told by Snook that he feels Microsoft has always been reactionary. Gates’ response is brilliant:

Especially when we started the company. (Laughter.) I knew that three years later, Apple would come along. It was [just a reaction]. (Laughter.)

There are bits the transcriber had trouble picking up. They’re in brackets.

Gates response is completely disarming, and funny too. Snook responds by asking about Word being reactionary to WordPerfect, and Gates goes:

When do you think Microsoft did its first word processor, just out of curiosity?

Gates says that Microsoft has little 8080 word processors, and that ultimately Charles Simone built the first bitmap graphics word processor at Xerox PARC, and he started Microsoft Word (or Microsoft Multi-Tool Word), so there was no reactionary movement, just coders doing what they do.

He makes the more important point that Microsoft didn’t beat WordPerfect by copying them, they won by betting heavily on the graphical user interface while WordPerfect bet against it, a costly losing bet.

Bill then asks who else is doing tablet computers? Who is doing IPTV? He explains that Microsoft is so big, everything it does becomes the baseline, so by definition that means only what everyone else does is innovative.

Anyway, tablet computers, is there somebody else out there doing tablet computers? IPTV, is there somebody else out there doing — by definition what we do is the baseline. Everything Microsoft does is the baseline, and what we don’t do, that’s what’s innovative I guess. (Laughter.) And by that definition the other guys do all the innovative things.

It’s not an airtight argument, but it’s a better way of looking at it than some defenders of Microsoft have tried using. Bill does make the good argument that the winners in tech are rarely the ones who come up with the new idea, but rather the ones who bring it to market properly.

Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, it just brought it mainstream. Microsoft didn’t invent the graphical OS, it just brought forward the first one compatible with everyone’s old software. YouTube didn’t invent internet video, it was just the first one to package it with an easy embeddable player and a great community. The winners aren’t the ones who do something first, but the ones who did it right for the market and the users.

It’s a lesson we should all remember as we try to make a difference in the world.

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Gates, Jobs, Dell Named Top IT Personalities

Doug Caverly — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:11:36 +0000

Another “tops in tech” list has come out, and most of the names you’d expect to see are on it. What’s surprising, though, is that no one closely connected to Google made the top three; instead, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell were voted the most influential IT personalities.

Gates, Jobs, Dell Named Top IT Personalities

Mind you, I’m not saying that any high-ranking Googlers deserved to beat out those people – CompTIA’s poll was looking at the last 25 years, so Sergey, Larry, and the gang are latecomers. Still, it’s rare that one of these “best of” lists doesn’t have Google in first or second place.

Sergey and Larry did tie for fourth place, however, which put John Chambers in sixth. Larry Ellison nabbed seventh, and then another Google-related name appeared: Vint Cerf. (Although Cerf’s done much more than serve as Google’s “Chief Evangelist,” of course.)

To wrap up the list, ninth place went to Steve Ballmer, and Meg Whitman managed to get tenth. Except for a 20 percent gap between Jobs and Dell, most of the margins between these people were rather small.

And although this list is obviously subjective, we’ll go ahead and relay the standards by which it was created: “The majority of poll respondents (91 percent) have worked in the IT industry for at least three years; and two-thirds have been in the industry for five years or more,” according to CompTIA.

Steve Job’s iPhone Price Drop

Ross Dunn — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:01:39 +0000

On Wednesday the news lines were afire as Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs announced a $200 price slash on the iPhone. Ever since the announcement there has been rampant speculation on Job’s move…

Why, why, why?

Well I came across a fantastic character profile on Bill Gates and Steve Jobs by Robert X. Cringely; a man with abnormally deep insight into both men. The article is fascinating and I strongly recommend the read. After all, these are two people who have serious influence over the technological world we live in.

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Bill Gates Yawns At Google Phone

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:13:50 +0000

The chairman of Microsoft isn’t impressed with reports that Google will develop a cellphone that can compete with others in the market, like ones running Windows Mobile.

Bill Gates Yawns At Google Phone

Gates will involve himself fully with his philanthropic efforts after he steps away (mostly) from Microsoft next year. It’s our loss in the tech media world, because we won’t have stinging quotes from him after he departs.

In recent times, Gates has directed some of his famed invective at Google, a company he once described as the most similar competitor to Microsoft he’d ever seen. That trend continued in a New York Times interview with him.

For one thing, don’t expect Gates to pick up a Google Phone if it ever comes to market:

“How many products, of all the Google products that have been introduced, how many of them are profit-making products?” he asked. “They

Jobs, Gates To Share A Stage

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:05:46 +0000

The D: All Things Digital conference taking place next week will bring together the two most iconic figures in US technology: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

The buzz around the forthcoming 75-minute session featuring Jobs and Gates at the D Conference has been palpable. MarketWatch and others have been agog over the upcoming milestone in computing history.

It’s instructive to remember the last time these two tech giants shared a stage. It was 1997, with Jobs physically on-stage at a MacWorld conference in Boston. Apple was having money troubles, and Microsoft needed to get antitrust regulators off its back.

Gates appeared on a big screen behind jobs via a remote link. The Apple faithful in attendance erupted in boos. To them, and much of the computing world, having Gates involved in Apple was akin to Satan offering Eve a snack in the Garden of Eden, with equally dramatic repercussions.

Microsoft made a $150 million investment in Apple, and to this day is the biggest developer of Apple software outside of 1 Infinite Loop. Apple’s resurgence under Jobs has the company flying high with the public and investors.

Jobs and Gates will be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, in what should be one of the most compelling moments in tech we are likely to see this year.

Gates on Everything Moving Online

Andrew Goodman — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:45:51 +0000

To those of us who have been toiling away trying to explain the benefits of targeted, measurable, interactive advertising: Bill Gates is on our side.

He pulls no punches, and believes that the shift will be ahead of schedule, and not smooth.

Yellow Pages: doomed.

Newspapers: doomed.

Traditional TV ad models: doomed.

And all sooner than people think.

While his linebacker, Steve Ballmer, might have said as much already, the point is important, and worth driving home. An excerpt:

"When you say something like ‘plumber’ the presentation you get will be far better than what you get in the Yellow Pages," Gates said. "After all, we know your location and so we can cluster [results] around that. … Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say below 50, will drop to near zero over the next five years."

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Bill Gates Predicts End Of Yellow Pages

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:56:24 +0000

Technology will advance so far for local advertising that when voice and data truly combine on mobile phones, the usage of venerable yellow page directories to find businesses will be near zero for anyone under 50.

Bill Gates Predicts End Of Yellow Pages

That might be news to publishers who drop hefty books full of business listings at doorsteps all over the country each year. Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates, speaking at the company’s Strategic Advertising Summit, told attendees the age of the print directory has been numbered.

During his address, which took place with corporate VP and chief media officer Joanne Bradford on stage, Gates gave the example of calling for movie listings as an example of how information delivery could be better when voice/screen interaction improves.

When this happens, it should have implications in the local advertising market, Bradford observed. After that, the big change will come to the yellow page market. Gates explained to the audience:

Well, the Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. We should be able, when you go to the service that’s going to take our technology and the Tellme technology that we acquired, when you say something like plumber, the presentation you’ll get will be far better than what you get in the Yellow Pages. After all, we know your location, and so we can cluster around that. We can take the information and show you the names, and then you can expand the information easily. So, yes, I think that these things always take time, but Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say, below 50, will drop to zero, near zero over the next five years.

The ability to find local listings on mobile devices will have to become nearly as simple as flipping through a book. Once someone like Microsoft accomplishes that, more local businesses should embrace local online advertising.

Given Microsoft’s colorful history with regards to competitors, we have to wonder if the company thinks they have to win the mobile operating system market to succeed in local search. Microsoft may have to play nice with global handset leader Nokia to gain critical mass on the mobile platform.

With Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Ask all in the mix on mobiles, no one is going to just let Microsoft walk off with all the local ad goodies.

Google Voted “Most Popular Brand” In Britain

Doug Caverly — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:52:05 +0000

According to the Millward Brown research consultancy, Google is Britain’s most popular brand. And while that accomplishment in impressive enough its own right, the search engine company achieved it while spending remarkably little money on advertising.

Google’s on quite a roll in these popularity contests; the company was also recently designated America’s most popular brand of 2006, and Fortune magazine named it the number one place to work. Even reaching (all the way) back to 2005, Google made a “top brands” list. Not bad.

Microsoft managed to place second in the Millward Brown rankings, but it spent about $78 million in advertising, according to The Guardian’s Mark Sweney. Google’s advertising department spent a mere $3 million. The difference between those sums has not escaped the public or the media, as articles with titles like “Brits Love Google More Than Microsoft” and “Google beats Gates in UK love stakes” proliferate.

Peter Walshe, Millward Brown’s global account manager, explained how the search engine company had achieved its top ranking (without resorting to media blitzes). “Google has been propelled to the top position because of its ubiquitous presence, the strength of its brand, the amount of coverage it generates in all media and its strong usage among all age groups,” Walshe told The Guardian.

So . . . will Google be able to hold onto its title as “most popular brand” in the future? Landor Associates (which conducted the American survey) isn’t telling, and neither is Millward Brown. Millward Brown did, however, identify another company – MySpace – as “one to watch.”

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Vista RC1 Media Center Time-Bombs

Nathan Weinberg — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:58:43 +0000

A whole lot of Windows Vista beta testers are miffed to find out that Vista’s Media Center stopped working properly on December 31.

The problem: The MPEG 2 decoder used in Release Candidate 1 was only licensed through the end of the year, so, when the date came, poof!

No more Live TV. Microsoft fixed the issue in RC2 (presumably by licensing the decoder through the actual end of the beta period), but many have not been able to upgrade to RC2, due to various availability and upgrade path issues.

For now, the best bet is to downgrade to Windows XP Media Center Edition, or, if you never had that version, find a way to upgrade to RC2 (you can find it on Bit Torrent, and the product keys should work). Installing a third-party MPEG2 decoder won’t help.

Otherwise, hold your breath and live without fully using Media Center for four more weeks (yes, I know it won’t be easy) and pick up Vista Home Premium when you can.

(via Digg)

If you’re interested, you can pre-order an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate signed by Bill Gates himself. It’s extremely limited, with Big Bill signing only 20,000 copies, and as TDavid notes, it is likely the last operating system Gates will be involved in and thus autograph.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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Global Release Date for Windows Vista

Neville Hobson — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:41:49 +0000

If knowing the precise date when Windows Vista will be released to the world at large is important to you, mark January 30, 2007, in your diary now:

Microsoft’s founder and chairman Bill Gates will launch the software giant’s long-awaited Windows Vista operating system to home consumers worldwide on a visit to Scotland, it has emerged. Gates will be in Edinburgh for the fourth Microsoft European government leaders’ two-day forum, the first time the event has been staged in the UK. He will release Vista globally to consumers on January 30 – the first day of the forum at the Scottish Parliament.

The Scotsman | Bill Gates visit to open up a new Vista for promotion of Scotland plc

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.