Does Microsoft innovate or imitate? Ask Bill Gates.

Todd Bishop of the Seattle PI writes a blog about Microsoft. In a recent post, he addresses Microsoft's rep as an imitator. Here is a quote from Bill Gates in response to this criticism:

"We can't change it. If you think we just imitate, then that's -- you just can't change it.

"Did we do personal computing? Who did that damn personal computing thing? When I bought that 8008 for $360 down ... what was that?

"Anyway, tablet computers, is there somebody else out there doing tablet computers? IPTV, is there somebody else out there doing -- by definition what we do is the baseline. Everything Microsoft does is the baseline, and what we don't do, that's what's innovative I guess. (Laughter.) And by that definition the other guys do all the innovative things.

"I remember Google invented Web search. No one did it before they did. It's very interesting how they did that. (Laughter.)

"In the computer industry the person who does something first and the person who does it successfully, they are rarely the same, but the memory is -- I mean, people think Apple Computer was an early personal computer company. Well, let's see, I had licensed 17 people to do personal computer basics before I did the Applesoft BASIC, before I went out with Steve Wozniak and did the version that worked with a cassette tape, because they didn't have the disk yet. But Apple invented personal computing.

"So, let history be rewritten at all times. But there's no way to get it straight, I guess. Go look at what Microsoft Research is doing, and then decide who are imitating and let me know."