S1 Ep 1 Vs series
Gates Vs Jobs
I want to put a ding in the universe
- Steve Jobs
Life is not fair; get used to it
-Bill Gates
Introduction
The digital world that we live in wasn't simply made through collaborations of varied geniuses but was forged by the rivalry between two of the foremost innovative minds mankind ever produced. On one one-hand we have Bill Gates, the young computer prodigy establishing himself in one of the best institutes i.e Harvard. On the other hand, we have Steve Jobs, the most charismatic and innovative man ever lived.
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| bill gates vs Steve jobs |
Behind story
In the year 1974, Gates was in Harvard, who is a competitive guy as well as a smart guy. He gets to understand about the very first micro-computers that are in the market named ‘Altair 8800’. Altair wasn’t a normal computer but a bunch of LED lights and was hard enough to be used by the daily public.
Ironically, 3000 miles away in California is one more person who wouldn’t want to be left behind, as Jobs, a college dropout with no computer background has just returned from a pilgrimage in India. He visits his friend Steve Wozniak, an e electronic and computer hobbyist. Wozniak introduces Jobs with his latest experiment where he has built something like Altair but instead of adding punch codes, he has built a separate screen monitor and keyboard to directly input the command. This was a Eureka moment for Jobs and for him it was nothing less than a miracle he was witnessing. Unlike Wozniak who was interested in how it works, Jobs was interested in its marketing.
Gates after selling his first computer program makes him enough inspired to take the biggest risk he could have ever taken. He drops out of Harvard at 19 and establishes his own software programming company with Paul Allen named ‘Microsoft’.
Here in California, a garage is being used as a workshop area for grounding the roots of the biggest tech giant in the world which they call ‘Apple’. They make various copies of Wozniak’s computer with the name ‘Apple One’ and presents it to the tech geeks.
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Even with this revolutionary design of keyboard and monitor, they are only able to sell 200 units. But Jobs and Wozniak are in no mood to give up, they know that they can develop the idea which is ahead of time and will help them conquer the world. While Wozniak works on making the processors fast, Jobs's main aim is to make the computer look more appealing in terms of design, its vividness in such a way that it is loved by both computer hobbyists and the public. Jobs aims at his idea of putting all the parts in a single box and make the computer look as if it’s a single body which was an idea of a decade ahead.
It’s 1977 and ‘Apple 2’ has been released and is an instant hit.
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No human has ever seen such a design and is addicted to its presence. A year in the production and Apple 2 brings 8 million dollars in sales. The computer reaches another genius Bill Gates who analyzes it and finds a drawback whose solution can indirectly make his worth big enough. The programming used in Apple 2 was good for normal consumers but various business software wasn’t efficient. He knew if he could make it compatible with business software, he can cash in Apple’s success.
Gates and his team work for months to develop a circuit board soft card for business purpose and was designed in a way it directly fits in the Apple 2.
Now was the time for the two biggest minds in the industry to come face to face!
Gates introduced Jobs with the soft card and various business compatibility this software has. The deal went smooth and Apple 2 production was flooding and Microsoft was just the biggest part of it. Till the 1980s, the biggest revenue source for Microsoft came from the Apple 2. But Gates wanted an upper hand among all developers including Jobs. The tables have turned and IBM is interested in getting into the personal computer business after dominating the technological industry. Gates approaches IBM as the software is the main component for IBM. He negotiates with IBM that his software would be available for any device just to clarify his third-party clients especially Apple. IBM agrees and now Gates earns a wealth of unbound imagination with his software.
Jobs realizes very soon that IBM is going to dominate the market share Apple has been holding in its grip for years. He approaches Xerox PARC and gets an investment of a million dollars. Jobs never realized that the deal with Xerox was the moment he turned technology into life for years to come. The very next day, Jobs has an idea for his next venture i.e. ‘Macintosh’. But to make him focus completely on the project ‘Macintosh’, he wants someone who could run the company. An intelligent leader who has the experience and finally the search ends with ‘John Sculley’ who is former Pepsico CEO and executive. Jobs invites Gates to show the latest innovation and to ask him to design software accordingly.
Gates is shocked to spines when he sees the model with a mouse attached, the interface is the most appealing, the screen is customized and overlaying windows, he could not believe what he just saw. He agrees to make the software but in his mind, he just has a bigger opportunity to settle this race. He goes back to Microsoft and asks his team to make a similar software to what he saw in the Macintosh. Jobs worked for 3 years for the Macintosh and it was a week before the launch he got the software from Microsoft which was a fake corrupted software and nothing could be used for the user’s interface. Jobs realizes that Gates has declared war when he confronts him in his office. Gates preferred to remain silent. It was the peak time of the Gates vs Jobs era.
The story which made a film
He is developing something similar to the idea of Jobs and is still 2 years away from releasing something we know today as ‘windows’. Jobs has no way but to release Macintosh in 1983, where the unveiling is an instant hit but the computer itself is very slow due to its software. Apple declines in the sale by nearly 27.3%. A time came that Macintosh sales dropped to 500 units and the stock value turned half. A board meeting is called up and Jobs explains his new plans for the company but he wasn’t in his worst nightmares he would have guessed that the board has decided to throw him out of the company.
The company that was created by Jobs, he is not a part of it anymore. This came like a bullet to him and he was stunned. A man who seemed to be unstoppable once has no tracks to run on now, whereas Gates is making an empire with his DOS operating system and a final nail in the coffin for Apple comes when Microsoft releases Windows on November 20, 1085. Apple was on its verge as its market share was left at 5% and in 1996, the company lost a total of 1 Billion dollars. Within a month or two, it was to be entering the gates of bankruptcy.
A man from the fog enters from the gate of Apple and surprisingly it is Gates who is called by ‘The Board’ itself to bring his innovation back to the company. But before he could start, he needs solid cash and the source is unfriendly i.e. Bill Gates itself who is the richest on the planet now. Gates is already dealing with various legal issues as well as ‘monopoly’ cases. Jobs makes him understand that ‘if Apple goes away, Microsoft won’t be having any competitor left and the world won’t respect Microsoft who is controlling the market with no hurdles’.
When Jobs told the people about the importance of partners in a company, he showed Gates on the video-conferencing screen and he was booed to hell. The iconic moment of Gates appearing on the screen and the crowd booed was the condition of Microsoft in terms of monopolist image in the market. But later, Gates invest 150 million dollars in Apple. Jobs begins a never-ending a realistic, relentlessly beautiful production of gadgets including iPod, iMac, and the revolutionary iPhone. Apple’s success knew no boundary but Gates has an image problem that he tries to resolve using charity.
A foundation named ‘Melinda & Gates Foundation’ soon turned into the world's biggest private foundation. He donated billions to the people and tried to help himself and Microsoft.
The rivalry ends
“May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace.”
– Umair Siddiqui
For years Jobs has been downplaying the news that he is suffering from pancreatic cancer. Due to health issues, he resigned from Apple in 2011 as he knew his time is limited. Sadly, Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011.
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His death was mourned by millions out there and people devoted to him as much as they are to their gadgets. After his death, Apple went on to become the most valuable company in the world.
The relation between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs was very complicated. They were friends where time and situations turned them into an enemy.
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