I’ve been saying the same thing for years. Bill Gates is a nerd and he ran his company like a nerd. Steve Jobs was a marketing guy, and he ran his company that way. Apple was founded by Jobs marketing genius and Wozniak’s technical genius (that’s an understatement right there).
Right now, in my opinion, Microsoft’s current CEO Steve Ballmer isn’t a nerd and is a salesman. I think a new leader for Microsoft would need to come from within Microsoft, but not from the marketing department – it needs to come from the engineering department (head of Windows Steven Sinofsky would be a good choice). Sell the product, not the company. The whole saying “If you build it, they will come” comes to mind. Microsoft is more focused on delivering to the shareholders while leaving the consumers with scraps. They need to turn that around and focus on the consumer, give them a kick ass operating system and Office suite. It will sell very well and profits will go up helping the share price.
The interview with Nathan Myhrvold tells of some inside thinking of a Microsoft CTO. Jobs’ critique of Bill Gates being an unimaginative and a non-inventor goes in the trash. I always thought Steve Jobs was more of a scam artist than anything (and his past proves so) – and never understood his knocks on Bill Gates. As I’ve said before – Bill was a nerd.