Gates takes a swipe at iMac

Microsoft may have made a $150 million investment in Apple Computer when the computer-maker was struggling, but that infusion of cash evidently does not equate to respect in Redmond.

At Microsoft's annual gathering of financial analysts in Seattle last week, company chief Bill Gates took a swipe at Apple's multicolored iMac packaging strategy in the course of a discussion of various Intel-based devices.

"The one thing Apple's providing now is leadership in colors," Gates said as he pointed out a red-colored Intel-based personal computer on display. "It won't take long for us to catch up with that, I don't think."

Apple has rebounded from the fiscal woes that prompted the Microsoft investment two years ago, announced at Apple's Macworld Expo industry trade show amid a smattering of boos.

While Microsoft did announce new software at last week's Macworld in New York, the company for the first time since the August 1997 investment didn't have a representative on stage during interim CEO Steve Jobs's keynote address. The speech focused primarily on new notebook versions of the high-flying iMac line of machines.