NEW YORK -- Bill Gates appeared live on NBC's "Today" show this morning in the opening salvo of a marketing blitz for Windows Vista and Office 2007. Here's coverage of Microsoft's plans both here and abroad.

The chairman's conversation with "Today" co-host Meredith Vieira included some choice exchanges.

She started the "exclusive" segment with this chestnut: "You might say it's a Microsoft world and we're just living in it." That was followed by a look first at Apple's resurgence with lots of fawning shots of Steve Jobs talking about movie downloads and some barbs by way of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.

During the interview, she asked him about competition with Apple.

Vieira: Microsoft, obviously developing this product, the response from Apple has been copy cat, copy cat. How much pressure have you felt to compete with Apple?

Gates: Well, Windows PCs are over 90 percent of what people use because that's where you find way more choices in hardware, lower prices, better competition and way more applications. The great games are all there, the great software advances are all there, and that's why we've been so successful.

We have a lot of innovations that move way ahead of anything Apple's done. You know we love the competition, but people oughta keep in mind that Windows is one of the biggest investments, the biggest set of partners on it and that's why it's always been the best choice.

Apple fans, any response?