Pro-Apple E-Mail From Microsoft Exec Allchin Surfaces
Date: Thursday, January 11 2007 @ 19:30:10 EST
Topic: Microsoft Related
Microsoft Corp. executive Jim Allchin's 2004
e-mail in which he wrote "I would buy a Mac" has been posted online as
an exhibit in an Iowa antitrust case just days after Apple CEO Steve
Jobs used the line to poke fun at his rival.
Microsoft executive Jim Allchin's 2004 e-mail in which he wrote "I
would buy a Mac" has been posted online as an exhibit in an Iowa
antitrust case just days after Apple CEO Steve Jobs used the line to
poke fun at his rival.
The text of the message, which can be downloaded
from a Comes versus Microsoft antitrust case's site, includes the
sentence "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."
Allchin, who is slated to retire at the end of January, was heading
Windows Vista development at the time the Jan. 7, 2004 e-mail was sent
to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer.
"If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we
need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to heart,"
Allchin concluded in the message.
But it was Allchin's "I would buy a Mac" phrase that garnered attention in December, when the message was first introduced in the still-ongoing Comes versus Microsoft trial.
A few days later, Allchin used the Vista team's blog to put the
comment in context. "I was being purposefully dramatic in order to
drive home a point," Allchin wrote on the blog. "The point being that
we needed to change and change quickly. We did: We changed dramatically
the development process that was being used and we reset the Windows
Vista development project in mid-2004, essentially starting over."
Apple's Jobs mentioned the e-mail Tuesday during his keynote at
MacWorld, where he also introduced the new iPhone cell phone. "We are
picking up lots and lots of new members of the Mac family, and we
couldn't be happier. As a matter of fact, here's one that might be
coming on soon," Jobs said.
At that point, Allchin's e-mail quote and photo were projected
on a screen beside Jobs. "Jim Allchin of Microsoft was quoted recently
as saying if he didn't work for Microsoft, he would buy a Mac, and he's
retiring soon, so I've alerted our Seattle stores to keep an eye out
for him and give him really good service," said Jobs.
Source
|
|