I helped Steve create the Mac ' Bill Gates

Bill Gates has risked angering a legion of Apple fans by audaciously claiming credit for the companys iconic Macintosh computer.In an authorised biography published after his death, Steve Jobs is quoted as labelling the Microsoft chairman a basically unimaginative person who ripped off other peoples ideas.Now Gates has taken a thinly-veiled swipe back, saying, "Steve and I worked together, creating the Mac. [Microsoft] had more people on it, did the key software for it."The 56-year-old multi-billionaire was talking to ABCs Christiane Amanpour, and departed from the unwavering praise he had given the Apple founder immediately after his passing last month.At the time, Gates said, "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. I will miss Steve immensely."But then came the biography, in which Jobs told Walter Isaacson, "Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think hes more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other peoples ideas."Gates remained restrained in his response but could not help taking credit for the original Mac, the commercially successful personal computer which boosted Apples fortunes in the 1980s.He went on, "Over the course of the 30 years we worked together, he said a lot of very nice things about me and he said a lot of tough things."Gates pointed out that Jobs frustration with him could have been down to Microsofts business success as Apple struggled for years, only becoming dominant in the last decade."He faced, several times at Apple, the fact that their products were so premium priced that they literally might not stay in the marketplace," Gates said."So the fact that we were succeeding with high volume products, you know, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, its tough."And so the fact that at various times, he felt beleaguered, he felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys - very understandable."He finished, "We got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all."Culled from www.dailymail.co.uk
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