Former Microsoft boss and philanthropist Bill Gates said that he considers Steve Jobs to have been an “incredible genius” rather than a rival.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Gates offers more details of his relationship with the Apple co-founder and said that the two had “no peace to make” as they had never been at war.
“Steve was an incredible genius who contributed immensely to the field I was in. We had periods, like the early Macintosh, when we had more people working on it than they did. And then we were competitors,” said Gates.
“The personal computers I worked on had a vastly higher share than Apple until really the last five or six years, where Steve’s very good work on the Mac and on iPhones and iPads did extremely well.”
Gates was speaking to the newspaper after revealing how he drew inspiration from Jobs in a televised interview early last week.
Gates had talked of visiting Jobs in his final weeks and in the Telegraph interview also reveals how he wrote to the Apple co-founder before his death. Jobs was said to have appreciated the gesture and kept the letter by his bed.
“I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know. There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing.”
