No iPods, iPhones allowed in Gates household

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
The three children of Bill and Melinda Gates may not be allowed to have a product from a certain Cupertino-based rival in their home, but that doesn't mean Mrs. Gates doesn't wish for an Apple gadget every once in a while.



Melinda Gates told Vogue in a recent interview that the couple's three children try to have "as regular a childhood as possible,", but that doesn't include Apple's ubiquitous iPod digital music and video player or its cellular companion, the iPhone.



"There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household," she said. "But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."



Gates' husband Bill, of course, founded Microsoft, which sells its own line of digital media players under the Zune brand name. So when it comes to the market-leading iPod, it's look-but-don't-touch for the Gates family, including the three children (aged 12, 9, and 6), and even Melinda herself.



"Every now and then I look at my friends and say, 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone,'" she said.



Melinda Gates, who was hired by Microsoft at the age of 22 and worked on products like Encarta, Expedia, and Microsoft Bob, went on to marry the founder of the company. Vogue describes her as possibly the "most ambitious woman on Earth."



Together, Bill and Melinda Gates run their eponymous charity organization that enjoys assets of around $35 billion.



The two say they still plan to give all of their fortune away. The interview didn't mention whether the three Gates children, aged 12, 9, and 6, use Zunes, but it does detail some of the charitable causes, from the American high school system to global public health, to which the couple has devoted itself.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 70
    ROTFLMAO!!!! SO FUNNY! Poor kids are hiding iPods like weed under the bed. Gates, don't punish your family just because your company can't even copy an Apple product correctly. It's not their fault Zune's and Winblows Mobile are total crap. Someone call child services...
  • Reply 2 of 70
    Could it be considered child abuse if the kids are forced into using a Zune?!?
  • Reply 3 of 70
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    What? Have technology that actually works? With no excessive licensing or support? That's a dangerous precedent!



    McD
  • Reply 4 of 70
    I don't see anything wrong with not letting them use a competitors product. I know that people who work for Budweiser aren't allowed to drink other beer (or so I'm told) and the same goes for people who work at Coca-Cola.
  • Reply 5 of 70
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Thats too bad to see how bigheaded the Gates family is. I'd use whatever I wanted thank you very much! If Microsoft made a device that was actually worth something this wouldn't be an issue. Instead they tried to copy the iPod and seriously failed.
  • Reply 6 of 70
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by themoonisdown09 View Post


    I don't see anything wrong with not letting them use a competitors product. I know that people who work for Budweiser aren't allowed to drink other beer (or so I'm told) and the same goes for people who work at Coca-Cola.



    Yeah that's probably true, difference is that these kids don't work for Microsoft...
  • Reply 7 of 70
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by themoonisdown09 View Post


    I don't see anything wrong with not letting them use a competitors product. I know that people who work for Budweiser aren't allowed to drink other beer (or so I'm told) and the same goes for people who work at Coca-Cola.



    There's nothing wrong with that?
  • Reply 8 of 70
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    Thats too bad to see how bigheaded the Gates family is. I'd use whatever I wanted thank you very much! If Microsoft made a device that was actually worth something this wouldn't be an issue. Instead they tried to copy the iPod and seriously failed.



    Exactly...maybe they should pick up an Apple products once in a while and see the difference. Apple certainly does not have any policy against using competitor products...if employees do use them it just means that the Apple products aren't good enough and need to be made better. Apple has its ear to the ground and thats why they kick ass.
  • Reply 9 of 70
    I guess I should pick up a Vogue to see what the story really was...



    I'm sure there are unsaid things going on that we don't know about. All in how things are phrased.



    I'm not defending the Gates, as I think people should use what they want and buy what they want. But I would really like to know the true reason for no Apple products, instead of what is assumed from an article.
  • Reply 10 of 70
    allblueallblue Posts: 393member
    In other news: I've just made myself a cup of tea.
  • Reply 11 of 70
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by allblue View Post


    In other news: I've just made myself a cup of tea.



    What kind of tea? Not a competitor's tea i hope!
  • Reply 12 of 70
    I had dinner with 3 people from MS last night; 2 of them had iPhones and the third was waiting for the next hardware revision to get one. None of them were from the MacBU either... in fact, a couple of them were working on Windows 7
  • Reply 13 of 70
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by themoonisdown09 View Post


    I don't see anything wrong with not letting them use a competitors product. I know that people who work for Budweiser aren't allowed to drink other beer (or so I'm told) and the same goes for people who work at Coca-Cola.



    This is poor reasoning and not true anyway. It's illegal to make consumption of the companies products a condition of employment.



    What they can say is that you aren't allowed to consume a competitors product at work but even that is questionable and would probably be overturned in court if anyone bothered to fight it. In the case of Budweiser, it's pretty obvious that you can't drink alcohol at work in any case so that one's completely wrong.



    Even if this kind of thing were true, it's petty nonsense as others have already pointed out and will have the opposite to the intended effect. Bill Gate's daughters will undoubtedly still lust after an iPhone (all the more for being denied) and if they are ultimately photographed using one the PR damage will far exceed that of him just letting them have one now. He's being a bad parent here.
  • Reply 14 of 70
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DiscoNomad View Post


    Exactly...maybe they should pick up an Apple products once in a while and see the difference. Apple certainly does not have any policy against using competitor products...if employees do use them it just means that the Apple products aren't good enough and need to be made better. Apple has its ear to the ground and thats why they kick ass.



    When Steve Jobs first returned to Apple, he used an IBM Thinkpad running NeXT Step.
  • Reply 15 of 70
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    I guess I should pick up a Vogue to see what the story really was...



    I'm sure there are unsaid things going on that we don't know about. All in how things are phrased.



    I'm not defending the Gates, as I think people should use what they want and buy what they want. But I would really like to know the true reason for no Apple products, instead of what is assumed from an article.



    The real reason is because Bill Gates knows the iPod and iPhone are gateway drugs.

    If he gets his kids an iPod next they'll want a Mac.
  • Reply 16 of 70
    ulfoafulfoaf Posts: 175member
    No iPods or iPhones ... pretty bad.

    Well, maybe you can get a decent MP3 player ... (I've got an iPod mini)

    ...and maybe you can get a Blackberry ... they are nice and have their advantages .... (I've got an iPhone)



    Worst of all .... they have to use Windows !!!



    The horror .... the horror.
  • Reply 17 of 70
    801801 Posts: 271member
    On the other hand, the rumor is that Steve Jobs forces his kids to use a Zune then they misbehave, which has cut down on disciplinary problems considerabley in the Jobs household.
  • Reply 18 of 70
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    No wonder Bill's kids hate him.
  • Reply 19 of 70
    ulfoafulfoaf Posts: 175member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol View Post


    There's nothing wrong with that?



    Right or wrong, I've know people that have worked for Anheiser Bush and for Coca-Cola, and yes, you can get fired for using competing products!



    There was a famous case in the Atlanta (home of Coca-Cola) paper, where a minor exec at Coke was drinking a Pepsi at work. I think she was asked to get rid of it, she thought it was a joke and refused, and eventually was fired.



    There are companies out there that are fanatical. These two, Microsoft, and Frito-Lay are all examples, for sure.
  • Reply 20 of 70
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Bill Gates gets a lot of criticism but, you know what, I kind of miss him. He deserves a lot of credit for giving his money away and he did an infinitely better job of running Microsoft than Ballmer currently does.



    Am I crazy for missing him?
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