Emotional Bill Gates calls Steve Jobs a respected rival on ’60 Minutes’

In an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Microsoft founder Bill Gates talked about his relationship with late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, saying both respected each other despite their differences and bitter rivalry.

“We were within a year of the same age, and we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies,” Gates says in the interview, according to “60 Minutes.” “And every fantasy we had about creating products and learning new things-- we achieved all of it. And most of it as rivals. But we always retained a certain respect and communication, including even when he was sick.”

Gates also discusses his last meeting with Jobs before his friend and rival passed away. He said Jobs was very forward looking, even then when he knew the end was near.

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“He was not being melancholy-like,” Gates said. “He showed me the boat he was working on and talked about how he was looking forward to being on it, even though we both knew there was a good chance that wouldn’t happen.”

“Thinking about your potential mortality isn’t very constructive,” Gates went on to add in the interview.

Gates also praised Jobs for his skills in marketing and product design, saying Jobs was able to accomplish much in the field of tech despite his limited engineering skills.

Microsoft “did tablets, lots of tablets, well before Apple did, but they put the pieces together in a way that succeeded,” Gates said. “The fact that he, with as little engineering background as he had, it shows that design can lead you in a good direction, and so phenomenal products came out of that.”

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