[Fred_Cokebottle]

Q: Companies such as Google and Apple have taken the lead in some key areas. Are Windows Vista and Office 12 a chance for you to recapture some of that buzz, and show that Microsoft plans to remain a central figure in the software industry?

Gates: Well, if you look at software very broadly -- productivity software, software tools -- Microsoft is the leader in way more respects than anyone else. Driving the research that will give us speech recognition and vision, and all of those big hard things that you've got to take a long-term approach in.
At any point in our history, we've had competitors who were better at doing something. Novell was the best at file servers. Lotus was the best at spreadsheets. WordPerfect was the best at word processing.
Right now, because of the breadth of what we do, we have that in many areas. Nokia is way ahead of us in phones; we're closing the gap. Sony is ahead of us in video games. We're just on the verge of something (the Xbox 360) that will help us close the gap there. In Web search, Google is the far-away leader. Big honeymoon for them. Even if they do "me, too" type stuff, people think, "wow." And Apple in music has done a fantastic job.
We've got all these areas -- like tablet computing, this Internet connectivity, or taking presentation to a new level, office productivity -- where we're just out there in front and we just need to keep pushing the frontiers.
In those areas where somebody else has done well, that's great. We'll match what they do, we'll bring new things to it, do it better and integrate it in with other things. And so it's very healthy for the consumer. We see that in search, we see it in music. It's not new at all that that's out there.
-----------

GO!! M$!!

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Fred_Cokebottle

Nokia is way ahead of us in phones; we're closing the gap.

Really ?

-t

[Mr Ti]

as my Granny says Bill you're 'jack of all trades, and master of none'.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Mr Ti

as my Granny says Bill you're 'jack of all trades, and master of none'.

And as my granny says, "Bill, you are a jack (of all) a$$es !"

-t

[Mr Ti]

that's one full on Granny u got there...

[Weyland-Yutani]

Bill Gates? Wow, I haven't heard much from him the last years. His company has been run by monkeyboy Ballmer for so long now I had almost forgotten he existed.

Ah well. Funny guy.

cheers

W-Y

[milhous]

everyone should watch andy hertzfeld's interview on cringely's nerdtv. he says that at one time, steve called bill and told him that he had no taste in anything. then bill responded and said that even though he had no taste, he couldn't say that his company had no taste. haha, steve's such a blunt fellow.

[alphasubzero949]

In those areas where somebody else has done well, that's great. We'll match what they do, we'll bring new things to it, do it better and integrate it in with other things. And so it's very healthy for the consumer.

Translation: We're going to put them out of business and all consumer base are belong to us.

[olePigeon]

Napoleon Dynamite > Bill Gates. Even G-Money admits it.

[cavepainter]

"We'll match what they do..."

translated: "We'll copy them."

THEN put them out of business.

[Salty]

this Internet connectivity, or taking presentation to a new level

Internet Connectivity? Wha? You mean TCP/IP? Or are we just talking about the fact that an ActiveX script can hose a PC if just browsed form a web site? No idea what buzz word he's even trying to hit there. And presentation to the next level? I guess Bill hasn't seen Keynote. And from the look of it there's a new Keynote on the way since Jobs was using some Transitions that I don't have . I'm thinking this next version might just catch up to where PowerPoint is in just about every way. As well I imagine whatever Pages is developing in to will give Word a good run for it's money.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by turtle777

And as my granny says, "Bill, you are a jack (of all) a$$es !"

-t

Emphasis on the $$'s

[JoshuaZ]

Bill: "At certain points other people had better software, then we stole their ideas and killed their business."