Gates worried by TV Mac attack

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 07 February 2007 02:20

Opinion and Analysis

The industry is buzzing with noise about how Bill Gates revealed Microsoft's insecurities in a recent interview with Newsweek. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not the first time has publicly responded to a competitive threat. However, it is the first time he has done it so unconvincingly.

A bit more than 10 years ago, Bill Gates gave a presentation to a packed auditorium at a Compaq convention in Huston. In those days, a brief pretender to the throne of the PC was a new thin client device called the Network Computer or NC.

Gates started his address with an attempt at humour. "We have figured out what NC means - Not Compatible," he said - or words to that effect.

The dismissive tone in his voice, showed in no uncertain terms that Bill Gates was not in the least bit concerned about the upstart challenger.

How different was the tone of Bill Gates' voice when confronted with questions about the Macintosh and Apple's advertising campaign during the Newsweek interview.

When the ad featuring the bespectacled nerd in a hospital gown waiting to undergo the major surgery of a Vista upgrade was first aired to the Apple faithful at Macworld it was greeted with uproarious laughter. A confident bespectacled Gates of years gone by would probably have also laughed, knowing that his company was so far ahead of Apple in terms of market clout that such an ad was a feeble attempt at bravado.