Dan Warne04 March 2009, 12:42 PM
Microsoft supremo Bill Gates' kids have to put up with Zune and Windows Mobile, his wife has revealed.
"There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids," Melinda Gates told Vogue magazine.
"Harsh, perhaps, but understandable. After all, it's hard to walk around tethered to merchandise made by your father’s most famous competitor," she said.
However, Mrs Gates said she did sometimes hanker after the sleek lines of Apple's gadgets. "Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone'," she said.
The Gates' live in a world-famous mansion built into the shore of Lake Washington. It has many high-tech features such as speakers hidden in wall panels to give visitors the impression that music is following them through the house, and large high definition displays that display artworks in place of paintings.
However, Apple products are roundly banned for family members passing through the Gates' gates.
Bill Gates recently caused a stir when he unleashed a jar full of mosquitos on an unsuspecting crowd at the TED 2009 conference. Speaking on the issue of the dangers of malaria, Gates said he wanted everyone, 'not only poor people' to experience the scourge of mosquitos.
The current CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, famously told a journalist for the newspaper USA Today, "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."
You can read the Vogue interview for yourself here.
Meanwhile, we're guessing that Melinda Gates has one of these LG GM730 phones that runs Windows Mobile. It's, uh, nothing like an iPhone... really Bill.
