The first time I met Steve Jobs, he walked out of the room. It was 1994, he was chief executive of NeXT Computer and exiled from Apple, and I had asked him why he made beautiful, expensive machines that only a few enthusiasts wanted. He swore at me, barked “I created the Mac and it’s still the best!” and was gone. Five years later, after he had returned to the company he co-founded, I wrote that he had saved Apple, but said I didn’t care, because Microsoft enjoyed a near-monopoly in personal computer software and so controlled computing. This view was conventionally savvy, but wrong. Mr Jobs has turned out to be much more influential than Bill Gates.
我头一次碰上史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)时，他正从房间里走出来。那是在1994年，当时他已被苹果(Apple)辞退，担任NeXT电脑公司(NeXT Computer)的首席执行官。我问他为什么要造那些外观漂亮、价格昂贵但只受到少数发烧友追捧的机器。他骂了我一句，咆哮着说，“我创造了Mac，现在它仍是最棒的！”然后，他就转身离开了。五年过去了，当乔布斯再度回到他与别人一起创办的苹果后，我曾写道乔布斯已经拯救了苹果，但我表示这无关大局，因为微软(Microsoft)在个人电脑(PC)软件领域享有近乎垄断的地位、并因此控制着计算机行业。一般来说，这个观点有道理的，但这次它却错了。事实证明，乔布斯现在的影响力显著超过了比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)。