Is BillG living in a bubble?
I'm a huge Bill Gates fan, and would go as far as to say he was the first reason I went to Mix06 last year. But this quote has me a little concerned...
"So the key trend to look at is the importance of software and then say who really has shown the ability to do strong software? In some ways, just we have."
Is he kidding? I totally stand behind the idea that he can't endorse the iPhone. That would be silly. But does he really think that Microsoft is the only company getting it right? Or more to the point, that they're getting anything right? I'm a .NET developer who uses Google Apps for e-mail, 37signals stuff for project management and OS X for my general computing needs.
I think even Gates is a little too focused on what can be shipped in shrink wrap. There are only two parts of Microsoft that seem to be getting it, and that's the Xbox team and the .NET/tools people. The Windows and Office behemoth are clearly very lost.
In software design, we frequently talk about solving just the problem at hand. Apple in particular takes that a step further and makes it abstract enough that they're free to add hardware (which happens to be a great business model for them as well). The iPod isn't just elegant because of the hardware, it's because of iTunes. My two Macs aren't just OS X, they're great hardware that has style and superior function (go on, compare a MacBook Pro to any Dell, I dare you).