Apple products remain off limits for family members of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the wife of the software billionaire confirmed in a radio interview Friday last week.

Being the children of the planet's second richest man should enable the younger Gates to enjoy the best that the world can offer for whatever price except the cool gadgets made under the leadership of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Melinda Gates told Radio 4.

Too bad for the Gates kids, they could grab anything in stores but they just have to look away when passing by Apple Stores, Mrs Gates admitted. She added that the Gates family skips out from the iPhone, iPad and iPod experiences, which are enjoyed by hundreds of millions for the most part of the last half-decade.

But like any other teens, Mrs Gates shared that her children also craved for an iPad but they were advised to focus instead on Windows technology, which only came out with a tablet October this year in the form of the Windows RT-powered Surface slate.

Why the limitation? It was matter of loyalty. Mrs Gates said.

"The wealth from our family came from Microsoft so why would we invest in a competitor?" The Daily Telegraph reported her as saying.

However, the same competitor had some amount of success in tempting Mrs Gates, who conceded in an earlier interview with Vogue Magazine that she was fascinated by Apple's iPhone smartphone.

She "wouldn't mind having that iPhone," Mrs Gates then declared.

It also appeared that one of the Gates daughters was hooked with the bestselling Apple gadget, with The Telegraph citing reports that she was spotted in Sydney last year very publicly using an iPhone.

Was the Apple ban in the Gates household motivated by the reputed Bill Gates-Steve Jobs rivalry?

Mr Gates insisted that there was no animosity between him and Mr Jobs. What they had was not war at all but purely business competition, the tech icon told The Telegraph.

"We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing," Mr Gates pointed out.

In his book 'Steve Jobs', Walter Isaacson recounted that Mr Gates was one of the last visitors seen in last few months by a dying Mr Jobs.

Mr Gates concurred, saying that "we spent literally hours reminiscing and talking about the future."

"I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built," the former Microsoft CEO told The Telegraph.