Jobs admired Facebook CEO, had one last talk with Bill Gates
updated 09:25 am EDT, Mon October 24, 2011
Gates, Jobs traded barbs through biographer
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was highly respectful of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, an outtake from this Sunday's 60 Minutes special reveals. In a taped interview with biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs expressed admiration for Zuckerberg's business acumen. "We talk about social networks in the plural," he said, "but I don’t see anybody other than Facebook out there. Just Facebook, they are dominating this. I admire Mark Zuckerberg...for not selling out, for wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot."
Apple and Facebook have sometimes had a rough relationship. Apple initially wanted to launch Ping with Facebook integration, but didn't get proper permission, and had to strip the technology out immediately after the service debuted. Shortly afterwards Jobs blamed the omission on "onerous terms that we could not agree to."
The Apple leader is also revealed to have met with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates one last time at some point close to the former's death. The two talked for several hours, with Gates telling Jobs that he had proved that the model of controlling computer products end-to-end can work. Jobs, similarly, admitted that Microsoft's strategy of licensing an OS to manufacturers can work.
Both corporate heads were somewhat deceptive, however. Gates later confessed to Isaacson, "What I didn't tell Steve is that it only works when you have a Steve Jobs." Asked if he genuinely thought the Microsoft model works, Jobs said, "Yeah, it works, but only if you don’t mind making crappy products."
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I think they both respected one another for being highly successful in the same industry, but Jobs made it clear over and over again that he had no respect for Microsoft's (lack of) sense for aesthetics and user interface, not to mention their near-total lack of innovation and blatant third-rate copying of whatever Apple did, starting with the first iteration of Windows itself and continuing right through to Zune and the Microsoft stores.
There are plenty of people who have a lot of money but no taste and no class; that's how Jobs regarded Gates, if you ask me.