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Trust you all had a great week 🤗?
This is the 10th and the last post in a blog series on Apple Inc. History. Our comprehensive history of Apple will take you from its humble beginnings in the 1970s to Jobs' departure and subsequent return to Apple. Join us in following the Apple story!
Today at a Glance:
Quote of the Week
Friends (1981 to 1983)
Rivals (1983 to 1996)
Truce (1997 to 2003)
Frenemies (2003 to 2011)
If Apple was a country
Past Greats 👴
Business & Startups
Random Tech Facts
Tweet of the Week
Quote of The Week
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it”
— — —
Alan Kay
Looking back on Steve Jobs' tenure at Apple, it's impossible to ignore the role Microsoft and Bill Gates played. The companies were instrumental in establishing the industry and defining an era. The two CEOs collaborated at times, competed regularly, and challenged one another in ways that helped shape the technology landscape. Let us delve deeper into the lives of these two great men.
Friends (1981 to 1983)
Microsoft was an important ally during the early 1980s development of the Macintosh. Apple needed ground-breaking software for its upcoming platform, and Microsoft was one of the few companies working on it. It was a key phase for Apple.
The depth of their bond was evident at an Apple event in Hawaii, where Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a few Apple VIPs. Bill Gates sugarcoated the Mac, and Steve Jobs adored it. According to a Guardian article, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were so close at the time that they even double-dated on occasion. But all good things must come to an end.
Rivals (1983 to 1996)
Steve Jobs had this vision of Apple dominating the computer industry while Microsoft controlled the application side. Apple would, of course, control the operating system.
But Bill Gates was not blind. He recognized that the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was the future of computing. He also knew that it would quickly render its DOS operating system obsolete, threatening Microsoft's status as (merely) a software company dependent on Apple. Bill Gates had grander ambitions.
For years, Microsoft engineers secretly copied the Macintosh operating system and worked on its own version of a graphical operating system called Windows. Steve Jobs received the heartbreaking news not long after the Internal Event in Hawaii that Microsoft is believed to be competing with Apple, and Bill Gates had deceived him all this while.
Apple would have a difficult relationship with Microsoft for the next 15 years. On the one hand, Microsoft was stealing market share from Apple, while on the other, it was one of its most important partners. Steve Jobs would soon leave Apple to found NeXT, but he would fail to make a dent in Microsoft's dominance.
Along the way, Jobs often sparred with Microsoft, criticizing the company’s lack of creativity.
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste,” Jobs said in the 1996 public television documentary “Triumph of the Nerds.” “They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
In a New York Times article that ran after the documentary aired, Jobs disclosed that he called Gates afterwards to apologize. But only to a degree.
“I told him I believed every word of what I’d said but that I never should have said it in public,” Jobs told the Times. ”I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”
Truce (1997 to 2003)
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, everything changed. Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, Jobs sought assistance from his "old acquaintance" Bill Gates.
Many consider the Microsoft deal to be a low point in Apple's history.
Few believed Steve Jobs when he declared that Microsoft was no longer the enemy. He even complimented the quality of their Mac apps like Office and Internet Explorer.
For a few years - five years, to be exact - things were odd. This corresponds to the five-year term of the 'Microsoft Deal.' During that time, Steve Jobs had only positive things to say about Microsoft. But it was all a trick of the light. If Bill Gates was a master of deception, Steve Jobs was his equal.
Frenemies (2003 to 2011)
It's 2003, and iPods are selling like hotcakes. The Apple brand is cool once more. Apple realized it couldn't compete with Microsoft on the desktop, so it moved the battle to mobile. Microsoft is a minor player in this market. Apple does not require Microsoft in the same way that it did at the turn of the millennium. So Steve no longer has to play nice.
Apple's tone toward Microsoft abruptly shifts. The days of praising are over.
What both men really thought of each other or what happened behind the scenes will likely never be known. You have to hope that these titans truly respected each other and eventually came to appreciate each other.
For example, there’s an event that is even more striking. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were 'finally' reunited on stage at All Things in 2007. When asked about Bill Gates' contribution to the PC industry, Steve was given the opportunity to praise him. Steve's response was fairly generic:
“Bill was the first to truly see the value of software.” ….
And Bill Gates's statement at the passing of Steve Jobs,
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs's death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.
Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.
The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.
For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely.
Bill Gates, 2011.
If Apple was a Country
Apple shares have increased 5,800% since January 2007, when late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone.
Another historical milestone for Apple is its $3 trillion valuation. To put this in context, Apple's value now exceeds the nominal GDP of six of the world's top ten economies, including the United Kingdom ($2.71 trillion), India ($2.62 trillion), France ($2.60 trillion), Italy ($1.89 trillion), Canada ($1.64 trillion), and South Korea ($1.63 trillion).
It took just 17 months for Apple Inc’s stock market valuation to surge from $2 trillion to $3 trillion, securing Apple the coveted title of becoming the world's first publicly traded company to cross the $3 trillion market capitalisation mark.
Market capitalisation, also known as "market cap," is a measure of a company's total market dollar value based on its stock price. It is calculated by multiplying the total number of outstanding shares of a company by the current market price of one share.
THE END!
The reason behind this historical perspective is that I want to educate people who have no computer background about the history and development of what has gone before and where we are today.
PAST GREATS
PAOLO SARPI (1552 – 1623)
The Italian prelate and statesman Paolo Sarpi was one of the greatest historians of early modern Europe and a founder of the modern historical method.
He taught philosophy while studying at the nearby University of Padua, the intellectual centre of Italy in this period. His intellectual gifts brought him into contact with some of the most important people and cities in Italy.
As a defender of the liberties of Republican Venice and proponent of the separation of Church and state, Sarpi attained fame as a hero of republicanism and free thought. His last words, "Esto perpetua" ("may she [i.e., the republic] live forever"), were recalled by John Adams in 1820 in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, when Adams "wished 'as devoutly as Father Paul for the preservation of our vast American empire and our free institutions, as Sarpi had wished for the preservation of Venice and its institutions."
Sarpi was also an experimental scientist, a proponent of the Copernican system, a friend and patron of Galileo Galilei, and a keen follower of the latest research on anatomy, astronomy, and ballistics at the University of Padua. His extensive network of correspondents included Francis Bacon and William Harvey.
During his lifetime Sarpi was honoured and protected by the Republic of Venice, a popular and well-known figure. After his death, he became a revered civic hero, not only of the republic but all of Europe.
Business & Startups
EdenLife
OurEdenlife, founded in April 2019 by three former Andela employees, OurEdenlife offers an efficient world where customers get food, laundry, and home cleaning done, with no friction, by their highly trained service providers.
The platform allows customers to schedule three home services — food, laundry, and cleaning — via a mobile application. The App is only available for users in Lagos. You can download the app on play store or apple store. When you sign up on Eden, you can configure a plan that fits your needs, then you get assigned a Gardener to help you manage your home.
To see what’s in the works with OurEdenlife, visit their
website.
Random Tech Facts
Google rents out goats.
You read that right. Instead of mowing their lawn, Google rents goats to eat the grass at their Mountain View headquarters.
Tweet of The Week
Enjoy your weekend.