Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage

Rob wrote with a link to a Computer Business Review online article, which reports that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Apple chief Steve Jobs will make a joint appearance at a future technologies conference in Carlsbad, California. The event is expected to last a little more than an hour, and the two computer industry magnates are expected to reflect on their pasts - while theorizing on the future. "[WSJ Tech columnist] Walt Mossberg, a co-producer of the conference who will interview the execs on-stage along with colleague Kara Swisher, said they simply invited Gates and Jobs to do the interview ... [Mossberg] declined to give any color about the questions he and Swisher are preparing, or any additional information. Most likely, Gates and Jobs will use the occasion to do some friendly sparring on their polar-opposite philosophies on personal computing. Jobs may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach, while Gates may rattle off the joys of partnering with hardware partners."

Comments

Imagine

[Shelbspeaks]

This would be an awesome conference to attend! I'd love to get the heads up on the future of technology. Curious? Check out Christopher Ruddy

Its a fairly close business relationship

[Budenny]

Difficult to see why this is surprising. Its a fairly close business relationship. Office for the Mac is a critical element of keeping the platform alive. Apple and Microsoft have similar approaches to the software business - they both believe in controlling the experience - the display manager, window manager, desktop environment. There are no published APIs which will let another party make a competing window manager for either OSX or XP/Vista. Both also believe in restricting the availability of the applications software to promote their OS. But both have been tempted outside this, though not as far as Linux. Neither one makes applications software for Linux. Both do for the others OS. Apple for instance has released Filemaker for Windows.

Despite the feeling that many Mac people have that Micsrosoft must be the enemy, they are in fact very close. The analogy might be if Coke and Pepsi were to share procurement of some of their flavorings.

The real threat to both is similar. It is that Open Source makes possible unlimited quantities of derivative works. In the end, this must dethrone both MS and Apple. In the end, they will not be able to compete with a business model which promotes unlimited derivative works. It destroys entry barriers on which they both depend. It is more cost effective, quicker to market and will lead to better quality products.

So, when they are sitting together on stage, I would like to see Walt, instead of asking silly questions about linking hardware and software and end to end models, and similar trivia, cut to the main issue.

He should ask as follows. We know that in essentials you both have the same closed business model. How do you think that business model is going to compete against open source in a world in which hardware is open, and open source allows an unlimited quantity of derivative works to run on it?