David Pogue’s new book, “Apple: The First 50 Years,”is packed with stories about the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. But one stands out above the rest.
In late 2005, Steve Jobs attended the 50th birthday party of a Microsoft engineer, the husband of a friend of his wife, Laurene. Over dinner, the guy lectured Jobs on how Microsoft had solved the future of computing with a tablet and stylus.
It wasn’t the first time, as Pogue recounts the story. Jobs had heard this pitch from the same person roughly ten times before.
“I was so sick of it that I came home and said, ‘Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be,’ ” Jobs said later, as reported in the book. The Apple co-founder and CEO walked into Apple’s Monday morning meeting riled up. “We need to show the world how to create a real tablet,” he told his team.
To him, that meant no stylus: “God gave us ten styluses,” he said, waggling his fingers.
The eventual result was the iPad, according to popular Apple lore.
The story is one of dozens of Microsoft anecdotes that appear in Pogue’s epic book. Across 50 years of Apple history, Microsoft shows up in almost every chapter, playing a different role each time — collaborator, copycat, existential threat, unlikely savior, and humbled rival.
Apple is celebrating its 50th anniversary today. Microsoft marked its own a year ago.
But the real question now is what comes next for both companies in an era when AI is reshaping the industry as significantly as the graphical interface did in the 1980s. The popular perception about Apple is that it’s an also-ran in AI. Microsoft, despite its recent struggles, has positioned itself more strategically to capitalize on the boom.
If Pogue’s book is any guide, that’s exactly the kind of moment when someone in Cupertino might just get angry enough to do something about it.
