Gates misquotes Jobs in interview

Gates talks with a gaggle of reporters after his CES keynote and misquotes Jobs on purpose. I have to think that he probably lied in an attempt to further drive a wedge between the studios and other content producers and Apple:

When asked about Apple’s planned introduction of a television set-top box for streaming content from a computer:
“I think it’s important to recognize that what you used to think of as consumer electronics has changed a lot. A company like Microsoft, or to some degree like Apple, may have some of the more interesting skill sets for delivering connected experiences. And so relative to the past, of analog hardware devices, and the neatness coming at that level, a lot of the neatness now is coming at the software level. We’re very comfortable competing in that level. We’re not the only people who can write software, I mean, there’s Apple, Google, a thousand startups who can do those things. So absolutely somebody who does software has an opportunity. … We were at the (Wall Street Journal’s) “D” conference where (Apple CEO Steve Jobs) talked about (the fact that) he doesn’t go into markets where he has to go through somebody else’s orifice, which is how he described the broadband companies and the cable companies and the phone companies and the things like that. We love those guys.”

Note: Emphasis is mine.

This is a complete misquote and misrepresentation of what Jobs said at D:. Jobs used the term “orifice” to describe the process to sell to Fortune 500 firms and how Apple isn’t good at that:

What’s your favorite thing you’ve not done?

A PDA. We got enormous pressure to do a PDA and we looked at it and we said, “Wait a minute, 90% of the people that use these things just want to get information out of them, they don’t necessarily want to put information into them on a regular basis and cellphones are going to do that.” So getting into the PDA market means getting into the cellphone market. And you know, we’re not so good at selling to the enterprise where you’ve got, in the Fortune 500, five hundred orifices called CIOs. In the cellphone market you’ve got five. And so we figured we’re not going to be very good at that.

Note: Emphasis is mine.

Dirty, cheap, underhanded, slimy, and typical Gates.

The iPhone: successful even if it doesn’t sell?

Pundit Avi Greengart:

The mere suggestion that Apple might make a glamorous, simple mobile phone that downloads, plays and shares digital music has intimidated competitors, said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis.

“Even if Apple does not announce a phone, just the threat of Apple’s entry could spur innovation,” Greengart wrote in a research note on Thursday. “If Apple builds a phone that is easy and genuinely pleasurable to use, the company will have a winner no matter how it is priced or sold.

I’d rather have it well priced and have it sell well. But, that’s just me.

Bill Gates: Apple does’t get it

CNet Interview:

Fried: Do companies like Apple that do both the hardware and the software–do they have any kind of advantage when it comes to entertainment-type scenarios?

Gates: They have a huge disadvantage in the kind of variety–design points, price points, distribution approaches. They just don’t get that. They do get to do this tightly coupled monolithic design. What we have to make sure is that we are working with the partners so we get that creativity of the close coupling while the variety of partners is such that we get something they really don’t have.

MacDailyNews slapdown:

If Apple’s at such a “huge disadvantage,” then why is Gates’ company trying so hard (and failing so spectacularly) to copy Apple’s Mac OS X and iPod+iTunes?

People are much more tech savvy today than they were back when Gates was peddling fake Macs as “good enough” and consigning the world to the dark ages of personal computing – from which many are just now finally emerging. The world today doesn’t want infinite choices of mediocrity and worse; we want devices that work well and look good; two areas about which Microsoft knows very little and where Apple dominates.

How’s that Xbox “partnership”?

Microsoft Vista Ultimate: ultimate waste?

Assuming Vista Ultimate is targeted at the enterprise customer, is this a high priority customer requested feature? From SeattlePI blog:

Windows Vista Ultimate feature: The high-end version of the operating system will come with a previously undisclosed feature called DreamScene that will let people run full-motion video as their background wallpaper on the computer, as opposed to placing a picture there.

I am guessing “DreamScene” isn’t going to make enterprises gush over Vista. Just another sign that firms do not have a compelling reason to upgrade (even though they will be forced to do so).

Microsoft and K-fed

Contrast this from Scoble:

One thing apparent as soon as you get off of a plane here in Las Vegas is that Microsoft is spending a lot of money and effort marketing Windows Vista. There’s Vista billboards everywhere, it seems. In front of the main convention hall there’s a huge tent that Microsoft owns and Microsoft has one of the biggest booths here at CES (and was among the most crowded last year).

This is Microsoft’s biggest show in years. Billions of dollars are in play.

with this review of Gates’ keynote from Forbes:

Snore. No wonder a few hundred people walked out early. Microsoft should have brought back out the jugglers, mimes and guys on stilts that entertained attendees as they filtered into the ballroom at the Venetian.

And in case Scoble thinks this is yet another sign of MSM bias against Microsoft, Forbes’ opinion is backed up by Scoble pal Dave Winer:

The Gates keynote was borrrring (no surprise) so I left early and came over to the Bloghaus blogging party.

Final note: I am not sure, but is Mr. Gates advocating more porn?

Remember Bill, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

Everything is coming up “i”

BW’s Apple edition:

Beware the wrath of the Scoble.

Sony iGear

From CNet:

Where do they get their ideas!

Netgear iGear

From GigaOM:

Microsoft Home Server: something actually useful

Based on the number of posts in the support forum, Apple should have come out with this first:

Windows Home Server is aimed at providing a centralised server hub for multimedia files in the digital home … It will come in both Windows Vista and Windows XP versions, and pricing and specifications will vary according to the manufacturer. The first hardware using Windows Home Server software should be available sometime this year.

Unfortunately, it is doomed since the OEMs probably can’t market it:

Windows Home Server will not be sold directly to consumers, but will be used by OEMs such as Hewlett-Packard as the basis for new hardware that consumers can put in their homes to connect their Windows Vista computers, Hollreiser said.

Next year, Microsoft will declare the Home Server a failure and release a hardware XBOX Media Server device by themselves to greater hoopla.