In Walter Isaacson’s new biography of recently deceased Apple founder and chairman Steve Jobs, Jobs has some harsh words for his former colleague and competitor Bill Gates. Jobs calls the Microsoft founder “unimaginative” in the book and suggests he would have been better off if “he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”
In an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Gates explained his relationship with Jobs and said that Jobs’ criticisms don’t bother him.
“Well, Steve and I worked together, creating the Mac,” Gates said. “We had more people on it, did the key software for it. So, 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. I mean, he faced several times at Apple the fact that their products were so premium priced they literally might not stay in the marketplace. So, the fact that we were succeeding with high-volume products, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, it’s tough.”
And with that in mind, Gates dismissed the criticism.
“At various times, he felt beleaguered,” Gates said. “He felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys. You know, very understandable. I respect Steve, we got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all.”
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