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October 23, 2011 6:46 PM

What did Steve Jobs say about his rivals?

By
Overtime Staff
Topics
Overtime Original

"They just don't get it." That's how Steve Jobs described his digital rivals Microsoft and Google in an interview with his biographer Walter Isaacson.

For his just-released biography, "Steve Jobs," Isaacson conducted more than 40 taped interviews with the Apple co-founder and CEO - all of them done while Apple was on its ascent with one great product after another, but Jobs was on his decline, ill with a form of pancreatic cancer that would end his life at age 56.

On 60 Minutes Overtime this week, we take a listen to some of those interviews in which Jobs talks about his rivals. Who did he like? Who did he loathe?

"60 Minutes" coverage: Steve Jobs
Complete coverage: Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

In addition to Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google's Larry Page, the tapes reveal what Jobs thought about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.

Jobs tells Isaacson: "You know we talk about social networks in the plural but I don't see anybody other than Facebook out there. It's just Facebook - they're dominating this. I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out. For wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot."

Also on 60 Minutes Overtime this week - a digital look inside the Jobs' family photo album.

And click here to see Steve Kroft's two-part 60 Minutes piece "Steve Jobs," produced by Graham Messick:

Watch Part 1 of "Steve Jobs"

Watch Part 2 of "Steve Jobs"

Disclosure: Walter Isaacson's biography "Steve Jobs" is published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS corporation.


Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
by AndySansone October 28, 2011 3:14 PM EDT
The phrase "It's lonely at the top" means the boss isn't going to be seen as the nicest person all the time. Bosses make difficult decisions and competition can be brutal. That's just the way it goes in a free market system. I couldn't care less about how he was perceived by his employees. Apple products dominate because he assembled a brilliant team and was at the helm leading the way.
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by azereta October 25, 2011 9:01 PM EDT
Steve was not a saint.
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by p_syrus October 25, 2011 6:27 PM EDT
Jobs was a business guy with a talent for marketing tech toys. Gates was a business guy with a talent for unscrupulous business practices.

The real heroes of the tech world are the people who develop the actual technologies which provide new ways of creation. They aren't the guys running the businesses, they are the guys who actually innovate.

Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Brian Kernighan, Tim Berners-Lee, Jon Postel, David Clark, Linus Torvalds are among the many mathematicians, physicists,v and engineers who have reimagined and created new possibilities of human technology and society.
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by cbs_bull October 28, 2011 10:57 PM EDT
Good points. Fully agree with you. I think those behind-the-scenes scientists stand at a higher ground than the biz people for today's tech.

On the biz practice, in my own opinion, Google("Don't be evil.") is better than Microsoft. Microsoft is evil.
by coolkids1331 October 24, 2011 11:49 PM EDT
If Steve Jobs wasn't the type of business man that you are all talking about...Picky, rude, arrogant, demanding. Apple would not be the company it is today! Thanks to that behavior, I have a lot of very cool toys !
Thank you Mr. Jobs. You have enriched many lives and will be missed.
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by chanakya2011 October 24, 2011 4:33 AM EDT
as a recent "switcher" from windows i am increasingly fond of my macbook air, preceeded at long intervals by my iphone 4 and ipod shuffle. this last piece of hardware, the shuffle, floored me by its size - lack of - and i sill marvel at how much it holds, and how elegant it looks and feels.

several years my junior, jobs was a genius; but i feel thankful that neither he, nor, more importantly his wife tried to present anything but the unvarnished truth about him; and a better biographer could not be found, isaacson does a superb job - everyone should read his obituary of jobs in time magazine, it is sheer poetry.

gives one pause to realize all at once that it does not take a saint, a kindly soul, or even an engineer to produce apple products ... it takes a steve jobs.

thank you, steve, tho; you can't hear me; mrs. steve, and walter isaacson.
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by karengray November 5, 2011 11:44 AM EDT
He CAN hear you!
by johnsmith9875 October 23, 2011 9:56 PM EDT
The more I learn about Steve Jobs, the more I respect Bill Gates.
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by skeezix06 October 24, 2011 3:26 AM EDT
I don't.
by lincoel October 24, 2011 8:32 AM EDT
Jobs was the perfect example of his time - self-involved and self-indulgent while expecting near perfection from his subordinates. But that's the way most people are. Everyone thinks they are the hero and that they are the only right way of thinking.
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by skeezix06 October 23, 2011 9:28 PM EDT
If I could afford an Apple, I would throw my microsoft out the door.
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by lincoel October 24, 2011 8:33 AM EDT
And wait until you get a Mac. You can do nothing for yourself. Upgrade a video card. Not going to happen, you have to buy a new Mac. Want to upgrade your RAM. Can't be done. Mac is for drones.
by karengray November 5, 2011 11:45 AM EDT
Me too!
by cutiger1981 October 23, 2011 8:38 PM EDT
sure cbs godded him up...they are all liberals...duh!
but hey the guy is a brillant business mind and he will be greatly missed. and im not ashamed to say i appreciate that cbs presented the story the way they did. think it was thoughtful, respectful, just proves once again why cbs news is a great organization, even in spite of the whole liberal thing. just because some people dont understand that great companies are built on great people putting the right people around them, well lets face it that's jealousy talking.
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by timthepatriot October 24, 2011 10:16 AM EDT
Steve Jobs employed hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers to cut costs. His business could still have been quite successful had he chosen to pay American workers instead. He loves to say that he wasn't "about getting rich" and that's a wonderful thought. But, his words and actions do not correspond with one another.

Plus, he was a jerk who died bitter and genuinely unliked by those who actually knew him.
by cbs_bull October 28, 2011 10:43 PM EDT
Why do you single out Apple on using Chinese sweatshops? Who hadn't done it? Microsoft? IBM? Give me a break. Well, maybe only Google because they were kicked out of China for not following CCP's censorship. Microsoft kissed CCP's butt than most of other companies.
by hdvideo1 October 23, 2011 7:46 PM EDT
Pulease I have heard enough already. Steve Jobs hired alot of talented people to work for Apple and he is getting so much credit for just being picky and doing what he did when they made new products. I have been using Apple for over 30 years love them but I got it, okay he was smart, but not God, get over it.
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