Bill Gates predicted 19 years ago that Apple would not be able to sustain the success of the iPod due to the inevitable arrival of smartphones

JVTech News Bill Gates predicted 19 years ago that Apple would not be able to sustain the success of the iPod due to the inevitable arrival of smartphones

In May 2005, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, gave an interview to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). At the time, Apple’s iPod was at the height of its fame, selling millions of copies each year and revolutionizing the way people listened to music. In this interview, Gates made a bold prediction: he said that the success of the iPod would not last, because smartphones would soon arrive and offer users many more features. Nearly 20 years later, it’s clear that Gates was right. The iPod was eventually supplanted by the iPhone and other smartphones, which became indispensable devices for most people.

Two big statements from Bill Gates predicted the future of tech very well in 2005

But what’s even more interesting is that Gates also predicted some of the key aspects of what smartphones would be like. Here is what the billionaire said in 2005. As a reminder, the first iPhone was only released 2 years later, on June 29, 2007.

Gates said:

• “I think this area (the mobile phone market) has absolute strategic importance, and I’ll tell you why: the challenges of the mobile communications market lie exactly where we (Microsoft) see our strengths. More and more more features will be integrated into a single device, and this will require software solutions.”

No luck, it was Google and Apple who brought most of the software solutions to smartphones with Android and iOS. Windows Phones were not a great success, of course, but Gates knew that he had to quickly position himself in this sector, before the general public could even imagine that we would have mini-computers in the palms of our hands. . Smartphones were still in their infancy, and the tech giants had already understood that they were going to change the world.

• “I don’t think the success of the iPod can last, as good as Apple is. I think you can draw parallels with computers: here too, Apple was once extremely strong with its Macintosh and its graphical interface – much like the iPod today – only to lose its position. Consumers want more options, and they will get them, because there is so much innovation in this area.

Still no luck for Microsoft, Apple has managed to remain a pioneer in terms of innovations and it is itself which killed the iPod by betting everything on the iPhone. That being said, we repeat, even if Bill Gates was not able to convert his analyzes into billions of dollars, because others were drawing the same conclusions as him, he was still right. Yes, consumers still wanted more possibilities, yes the iPod was destined to be replaced by a more versatile device. Where Apple has been smart is with the App Store, making the number of possibilities almost infinite.

AI: the next revolution announced by all the tech giants… but who will win?

There you go, we just wanted to share this old interview with you. It seems important to us in that it clearly indicates that the tech giants are always steps ahead in their analysis of major general trends. If today everyone is talking so much about AI, expect to see your lives quite shaken up by it within a year or two. One question remains, however: who will win this AI race? Windows with Copilot? Open AI with Chat GPT? Apple which should boost Siri very soon? Google with Gemini? Elon Musk with Grok? META (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) with Llama and Meta AI? A lesser known but formidable company like the French Mistral? A lot of players are jockeying for help, this moment is historic for the world of tech. All these actors have excellent arguments. Don’t blink.