What Does Bill Gates Think Of iPhone, AppleTV?

In what may be the very last Macworld ever, Apple introduced two products arguably superior to comparable offerings with a Microsoft logo nearby.

The dust has settled at CES and Macworld. What does Bill Gates think of iPhone and AppleTV?

I’m sure he’ll be asked that very question in the not too distant future. Instead of Vista or XBox or Office 2007, much of the world this week is buzzing about Apple.

How does the world’s richest man, head of the largest software company, and a convicted criminal respond to Apple’s incursion into the living room and smartphone arena?

He probably feels just fine and didn’t blink an eye. Why? Apple has just introduced Microsoft’s Research and Development projects for the next two or three years.

AppleTV is what Windows Media Center has been trying to be for about three years, and still isn’t there. iPhone is what every smartphone user wishes he had (Cingular notwithstanding—I’m on Verizon now).

The problem with hard-nosed, battle seasoned, criminally inclined executives is that they don’t worry much about a competitors product. Until it’s too late to worry.

Bill Gates is over the hill and ready for retirement and pasturage.

He’ll babble on for a few years in various and sundry interviews and speeches and keynotes of his own. It won’t matter. His mark in history is finished.

Steve Jobs, on the other hand, just put another hand print into the star-studded walk of fame in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater for Technocrats.

For Jobs, it’s the Mac, Pixar, Mac OS X, iPod, Disney, AppleTV, and iPhone. That’s a stunning track record of accomplishment pill of envy for Bill Gates to swallow.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his kids don’t have, and he won’t allow them an iPod. Gates has acknowledged the iPod’s success, but offers no comparable product.

For example, what does Bill Gates think of Apple’s end-to-end, hardware and software product designs? Good or bad, Bill?

Got that? Crystal clear, right? Meanwhile, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates announced a Windows shot that wasn’t heard anywhere around the world.

Let’s call Bill’s latest shot “Windows Home Server.” A home server? Apple is lighting the world on fire with AppleTV and iPhone, and Bill goes to a consumer electronic show to sell a home server? Why?

Got that? How many people are ready to buy a home server? Bill’s got the answer.

Dead simple to use? From Microsoft? When? How?

Somehow I don’t think Bill Gates is losing any sleep over AppleTV or iPhone. That observation assumes that evil rich people actually need sleep.

If AppleTV and iPhone are soooooo ultra chic and cool, what of Apple’s once and future new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard? Vista is about to hit the streets, and Apple is mum on OS X Leopard. What’s up with that?

The last time Apple remained so mum and tight lipped about a product was, uh, um, well… iPhone. Where are all those secret features in Leopard that Steve Jobs wanted to hide from Bill Gates?

Bill will never be the techno rock star visionary charismatic religious leader of the 100-million Mac and iPod users, and that alone probably pisses him off something fierce.

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