May 12, 2005: In an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, longtime Apple competitor Bill Gates says Cupertino shouldn’t rely too much on the iPod, as its success won’t last forever. Mobile phones, which can provide much of what the iPod can do, will disrupt the MP3 player market, he said.
“As good as Apple is, I don’t believe the success of the iPod will be sustainable in the long run. Suffice it to draw a parallel with computers: Apple used to be very strong in this area with its Macintosh and graphical user interface, as it is today with the iPod, and then it lost its position, ” Gates said.
It should be noted that during this period, Gates’ disparaging comments in the press about the iPod did not hurt Apple, since, having left the post of CEO of Microsoft in 2000, he no longer had much influence in the world of technology. As time has shown Apple did not worsen the situation by releasing the iPhone, but achieved greater success.
Mobile Phones – The New MP3 Players
Today we know that Jobs agreed with Gates for one period. A year earlier, when iPod sales accounted for about 45% of Apple’s revenue, he entered into an agreement with Motorola to release a mobile phone capable of playing songs from iTunes.
The ROKR E1 mobile phone with iTunes was a complete failure, but it pushed Apple to enter the smartphone market on its own. Two years later, the company released the iPhone.
Not only Bill Gates, but the then management of Microsoft also did not take the iPhone seriously. This outrageous statement by Steve Ballmer is a reminder of how Microsoft’s boss misjudged Apple’s iPhone.
Of course, who wants to have a smartphone without a physical keyboard?
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