The microsoft vs apple battle has been a debate dating back since the 1980′s. It is a rivalry that’s users take to the grave. My dad has been an Apple fanatic since I was born and for as long as I can remember I have always preferred pc’s, mainly because of my interest in gaming and pc’s have always had the most games and have had the most compatible operating system for everything I have needed to do. Neither of our decisions have budged and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Onto the main topic of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and how they head their companies in this competition. Both Gates and Jobs share one thing in common, an extreme work ethic and extreme dedication to taking their companies as far as they can possibly go. When I read on his biography that Bill Gates was found sleeping under his desk by his assistant, I thought that really displayed his drive and desire for Microsoft because this wasn’t when Microsoft was still taking off, this was once Gates had already made millions upon millions of dollars. Gates is always hungry to stay number one in the computer wars and this is a great example of this.
Steve Jobs like Gates is also an extremelly dilligent hard worker with a drive for his company to be the best. In the article about Steve Jobs and Apple in Wired magazine, they say that google’s and more broadly the silicone valley in general’s outlook on business management involve trusting the decisions of the masses to make the decisions of your company and treating your employees like gods. They then go on to say that Jobs threw these ideals out the window as this is not how apple operates. On the contrary actually, Apple thrives by locking themselves up and keeping everything very secret untl they are ready for the big introduction of their new product. The formula is obviously working as Apple had dominated the mp3 player market with the ipod and basically reinvented what a cell phone was with the iphone. So as Gates uses the silicon valley’s adopted ideals of listening to the public first and treating his employees very well and Jobs’ does not. It goes to show that no one management style leads to success because obviously both Apple and Microsoft are extremelly succesful.
