he (with Woz) invented the personal computer
as we know it (a plastic box with a keyboard)
No they didn't. IBM's first personal computer, IBM 5100 was introduced in 1975, one year earlier.
Before that Xerox Alto was introduced in 1973, and while never commercially produced -- get this, it had a GUI, a mouse, an object oriented OS and an Ethernet card.
And before that, the personal computers we know today were perfectly described in a book from 1949, called "Giant Brains, or Machines That Think", then later plans for building Simon were published: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/berkeley/simonfaq.ht...
And between 1950 and 1977, the year Apple II came along, there were many other good products released.
he made the GUI available to mere mortals
Making stuff available to mere mortals means making it a commodity. If I could afford a cheap and usable personal computer (in my country in 1994), it's because of Microsoft, not Apple.
So we are in disagreement.
he invented the desirable smartphone
No, Blackberry did.
What did Gates really invent?
Neither invented anything really. It's just plain, gradual evolution with ideas originating at least 30 years back.
> IBM's first personal computer, IBM 5100 was introduced in 1975, one year earlier
> Before that Xerox Alto was introduced in 1973
How much did the IBM 5100 cost? The Alto wasn't even sold. Can they really be considered "the personal computer as we know it"? If we go that route, any desk-sized single-user mini-computer would be "the first PC". That's not the case.
> it had a GUI, a mouse, an object oriented OS and an Ethernet card
No, it hadn't (ethernet excepted). Smalltalk/80 (launched in, you guessed, 1980) was the first real product (one you could buy) and class-based OO was only introduced with Smalltalk/76. The Alto never went past R&D stage. Its descendants did (in the 80's).
> Making stuff available to mere mortals means making it a commodity.
No. It means making stuff with the right price/performance. Like I said before, the personal computer as we know it, did not exist before Woz added a keyboard and Jobs added a plastic case. Before the first Mac no ordinary person would be able to buy a GUI-capable computer. After it, every computer got a GUI (sometimes, grafted on top of a very rudimentary OS)
> If I could afford a cheap and usable personal computer (in my country in 1994), it's because of Microsoft, not Apple.
If you got your first computer in 1994, you already missed the most interesting part of the PC evolution. Bad for you - it was one hell of a party.
I disagree. While he doesn't seem to mind the credit and attention that he's getting, he didn't "invent" that concept.
Look at what he said in his 60 Minutes interview: “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s negative tendencies in check. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person; they are done by a team of people.” He has always given credit to his team. I think it's the media that invented that myth.
I agree with the first one since you included Woz. But I have to say that each one of your points should be including several other people each, as I highly doubt he did each of those personally by himself. I for one feel that Woz invented the concept of the personal computer and Jobs invented the concept of selling the personal computer.
He was the driving force during Apple's best times, he does get credit from me for that. But to me, a small part of that is maybe Apple's board didn't find someone to properly replace him. Apple made a great deal of stupid choices between the eras of Steve Jobs. Now that he has resigned, it'll be interesting to see if Apple falls back to their usual "let's do something stupid since Steve isn't here!"
Ah yes, that failure Gates, I guess he'll have to go down in history as being one of the driving forces of one of the most successful companies in the history of the Earth. What a bummer.
Well... When you compare the achievements of both, Jobs' are bigger.