For a long time, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were two of the biggest competitors in the technology industry. They were both early pioneers of desktop computing, and their companies were battling each other for every ounce of market share they could get their hands on.

But those shared experiences eventually led to the two becoming good friends. In a new interview for CBS’ 60 Minutes, Gates fondly remembers his old foe, and emotionally recalls his last visit to Jobs’s Palo Alto home before he passed away in October 2011.

Gates wells up as he describes talking to Jobs about what the pair had learned, their families, and looking forward.

“He showed me the boat he was working on,” Gates revealed to veteran host Charlie Rose. “And how he was looking forward to being on it even though we both knew there was a good chance that wouldn’t happen.”

Gates also told how he and Jobs became friends.”He and I, in a sense, grew up together, and every fantasy we had about creating products and learning new things, you know, we achieved all of it,” he said.

Rose also spoke to Gates about his missed opportunities, and the areas in which Apple had beaten Microsoft — particularly with tablets. “We did tablets — lots of tablet — well before Apple did,” Gates said, before conceding that “they [Apple] put the pieces together in a way that succeeded.”

Rose also asked what Jobs had that Gates wishes he had. “Oh, his sense of design,” Gates replied. “That everything had to fit a certain aesthetic. 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 it.”

“He knew about brand. He had an intuitive sense for marketing that was amazing.”

You can watch the unaired footage from the 60 Minutes interview below:

Source: 60 Minutes

Via: Mashable