June 2, 2007
bill and steve
I suppose Everybody and Their Uncle will have seen the recent interview of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs by now, their first joint interview in 10 years.
It’s an hour or so long. For the benefit of Generation-YouTube, Wired’s “Cult of Mac” blog has it broken into seven easy-to-digest segments here.
The good news is, this is no simple PR photo op. This is two very smart, successful guys talking in great depth about what interests them most. Fascinating stuff.
Having been watching Microsoft close-up for the last month or two, the most interesting bit for me was, funnily enough, only about five seconds long.
It was about 6 minutes and 10 seconds into Segment Number Five, when Bill makes a rather small, vague remark, something or other to do with Microsoft soon re-entering the internet game with renewed vigor, upping their ante.
I thought that was VERY interesting. Bill understating something so important to the future of the software industry [i.e. the Internet] spoke volumes to me. Say what you want, the implications are potentially huge.
[UPDATE: Within a day of me writing the preceding three paragraphs, Techcrunch broke this story. You know you want me, Babe.]
[Bonus Link:] Usable Interfaces has a nice summary of the show.
The other big Microsoft moment for me this week was the announcement of this, especially in light of the many “Microsoft is increasingly irrelevant” comments directed my way [and ipso facto, towards the Microsoft Employees who read this blog] in the last month or two. Never a dull moment in the tech business etc.
I’m currently “between innings” with the whole Microsoft/Tech/Blue Monster thing. Taking a breather while events gather momentum all around me. Some things I can’t talk about, some VERY interesting things I hope to make public very soon. Watch this space.
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Nothing new about “Microsoft Surface”. Google for “Jeff Han” and see the original work…and the *original* demo video from TED, over a year ago.
It’s funny; this year’s big “innovations” are Apple with the multi-touch iPhone and MSFT has the multi-touch Surface. It’s “deja vu all over again”; instead of Apple and MSFT rolling out clones of Xerox PARC’s Star (and duking it out in court), now the Apple fanbois are fighting with the MSFT fanbois over whether Surface is an iPhone ripoff…when once again the actual invention was done elsewhere.
I agree completely about the significance of Bill’s understated image. It highlights the fact that Microsoft’s public persona reflects Steve Ballmer’s aggression rather than Bill’s gentleness.
Bill is leaving the Blue Monster and turning into the Big Blue Fairy. I don’t know if you can characterise that Bill’s leaving MS as “going home” but he is obviously setting out to change the world.
Microsoft Surface is certainly bigger than the iPhone (read that how you want).
The tech has been around since about 1980. What took these two laggards so long?
The Gates/Jobs interview, the best bit for me was when Steve admitted in jest that the Apple/Microsoft marriage had been kept secret for 10 years (remember 1997?).
Many a true word has been spoken in jest.
Hugh:
Thank you for drawing attention to this event and implications. I think the future of work is more and more in the conversation — meeting of the minds, projects, interests, etc.
Diplomats in business anyone?
Surface Tech is not new [I remember seeing it in a Sci-Fi TV series 10 years ago].
Making it large-scale commercially viable in a real world marketplace is new.
Let me know when you’ve cracked it
I don’t know if I’m reading too much into this but I see the Bill and Steve show as mindbogglingly important in an incredibly positive way. Stopped me dead in my tracks with a WTF stupid look on my face. Truly jawdropping — which doesn’t happen often.
The Bill and Steve show truly was amazing — to me because they were look back in a simply and honest way that is often hard to find among successful execs.
Kudos to Microsoft for beating corporate politics and their “internal Blue Monsters that stop them from changing the world” to actually create a whole new commercial product category.
Thanks for the link Hugh.
Ya know, at some point you just have to ask: how are the aliens from outerspace interpreting this so-called battle?