史上50大商業對手：比爾?蓋茨vs.史蒂夫?喬布斯

????將比爾?蓋茨與史蒂夫?喬布斯進行對比，就如同將白晝與黑夜進行對比一般，但兩人也有很多共同之處。這或許能夠解釋兩人競爭的殘酷性。而這種矛盾的結果是什么？那就是個人電腦的誕生。

????首先，兩人之間的不同之處在于：蓋茨來自中上層階級，讀的是哈佛大學（Harvard）。而喬布斯則來自一個中等收入的普通家庭，只在里德學院（Reed College）學習過一段時間。癡迷科技的蓋茨自己編寫了微軟（Microsoft）早期產品的代碼。而喬布斯則是天生的營銷者，而且擁有足夠的本事來說服別人，依靠合伙人史蒂夫?沃茲尼亞克發明了第一臺蘋果（Apple）電腦。蓋茨是全世界極客們的榜樣。而喬布斯自始至終都非常平和。蓋茨深諳規模與舉債經營；喬布斯則掌握了時尚與信息。（更具個人魅力的喬布斯已被搬上大熒幕，電影由諾阿?威利與艾什頓?庫徹主演。）在洶涌的計算機革命大潮中，蓋茨與史蒂夫成為兩個極端的代表人物。

????但最重要的一點是，這兩個人對商業都有透徹的理解。對于資產負債表和損益表中的那些把戲，兩位并沒有接受過正式的培訓。實際上，兩個人都不是大學畢業，但賺錢的能力卻都超出常人，也都精于競爭。

????在競爭的前二十年，蓋茨穩居上風。在此期間，Windows成為全球默認的操作系統。后來到了1997年，蘋果生死存亡之際，喬布斯還得到過蓋茨1.5億美元的投資。（當時，在宣布交易的Macworld大會上，當蓋茨在視頻中出現時，引來現場觀眾的一片噓聲。）但喬布斯在自己離世之前的15年里卻扭轉了局勢，在PC之外的市場占據主導地位，如音樂播放器、智能手機和平板電腦等。而這些領域都是微軟投入巨資卻基本徒勞無功的項目。（或許是受到這一事實的打擊，蓋茨的妻子梅琳達禁止孩子們在家里使用iPod和iPhone手機。）

????兩人也曾經毫不掩飾地相互指責。喬布斯認為，微軟的核心問題是缺少品位。而對于喬布斯最偉大的成就iPad，蓋茨的評價只有簡單的一句話：“還不錯?！?/p>

????喬布斯與蓋茨年齡上僅相差七個月（喬布斯較為年長），在喬布斯去世之前幾年，兩人一直保持著友好的關系。做了那么長時間的冤家對頭，他們比任何人更清楚對方取得了哪些成就。

????獲勝者：史蒂夫?喬布斯（財富中文網）

????Bill Gates and Steve jobs were as different as night and day, yet they had much in common. This probably explains the bitterness of their rivalry. The fruits of their enmity? The creation of the personal computer.

????First, the differences: Gates was an upper-middle-class kid who went to Harvard. Jobs grew up in a family of modest means and didn't attend many classes at Reed College. Deeply technical, Gates wrote the code for Microsoft's early products himself. A born marketer with enough technical chops to be persuasive, Jobs relied on collaborator Steve Wozniak to create the first Apple computer. Gates was the poster child for geeks everywhere. Jobs, meanwhile, was suave from the start. Gates understood scale and leverage; Jobs grasped style and message. (The more charismatic figure, Jobs, will have been played on film by both Noah Wiley and Ashton Kutcher.) Gates and Jobs became the opposing poles of the frantically growing computing revolution.

????Above all else, though, these rivals understood business. Neither had formal training in the black arts of balance sheets and income statements. Indeed, neither had graduated from college. Yet both were preternaturally shrewd about making a buck -- and how to stick it to the competition.

????Gates dominated the first two decades of their rivalry, overseeing Windows' rise as the world's default operating system. Eventually Jobs welcomed a $150 million investment from Gates in 1997 when Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) was looking death in the face. (Attendees of the Macworld conference where the deal was announced booed Gates' appearance by video.) But during the last 15 years of his life, Jobs flipped the switch on Gates, dominating beyond-the-PC segments like music players, smartphones, and tablets -- all areas of heavy, and mostly fruitless, investment byMicrosof (MSFT, Fortune 500)t. (Irked by this, perhaps, Gates' wife, Melinda, banned their children from having iPods and iPhones in the house.)

????The two were known to trade not-so-subtle barbs. Jobs diagnosed Microsoft's essential problem as a lack of taste. Meanwhile, Gates summed up one of Jobs' greatest achievements, the iPad, by saying simply, "It's okay."

????Born seven months apart (Jobs was older), they were friendly in the years before Jobs died. Having fought each other for so long, they knew better than anyone what the other had accomplished.

????Winner:Steve Jobs