14 DAY TRIAL // You would think that being the offspring of a multi-billionaire, and a man who has spent more than a decade in the no. 1 position of the world's most affluent businessmen, would by synonymous with having everything you want. Well, you would be wrong. Bill Gates has banned iPods and iPhones from his home, a mansion on the shores of Lake Washington, and has forbidden his children to use such devices. And don't think for a moment that “banned” is an exaggeration, because it is not. Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, currently pseudo-retired and focusing on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is actually considering iPods and iPhones as tabu in his household, according to his wife.
“There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,” Melinda French Gates revealed to Syle. “But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.” Bill and Melinda gates have three children together: Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe. In all fairness, the children are indeed rather young, and undoubtedly not yet dying for some Apple accessories. The two daughters are six and twelve with the boy just nine years old. Still, despite the decision not to allow the children access to iPods or iPhones, the Gates are trying to ensure a normal life for their progeny.
“It is essential to them that those kids have as regular a childhood as possible,” explained Melinda’s brother Raymond French. “They go to parks, have playdates and sleep-overs. Melinda is fierce about this. There will be no bubble for them; these children will not turn out to be Paris Hilton.”
At the same time it's hard not to take into consideration the scenario in which business rivalry between Cupertino and Redmond is what managed to make Gates ban iPods and iPhones from his home. After all, the Gates family sporting Apple accessories for the world to see would be equivalent to a less than smart marketing. And it's not like Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a big fan of Zune, is it?
But just because Apple devices are banned doesn't mean that the Gates are immune to the product's allure. “Every now and then I look at my friends and say, ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone’,” Melinda Gates confessed.