Lately, the computer entrepreneur introspected several of Microsoft’s moves in the last time, and reflected on committed decisions that today cost Albuquerque’s original company a lot. In a recent interview with Village Global, Gates confessed that not having joined Android was “the worst mistake ever made” by his company.
In the world of software, particularly for platforms, these are markets that all the winners take. So the biggest mistake I made is the mishandling that made Microsoft not what Android is today.
The billionaire continued with key data to understand why repentance. Today, Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform. Either it’s one, or it’s the other, that was essential for Microsoft to succeed. “It really is: the winner takes it all,” Gates says. If you have half the apps, or 90% of the apps, you’re on a fatal path. “There is room for exactly one non-Apple operating system. And how much is it worth? $400 billion, which had been transferred from Company G to Company M,” he concluded.
Back in 2005, Google acquired Android for nothing less than $50 million, and the company’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, admitted that Google’s initial approach was to outweigh Microsoft’s initial Windows Mobile efforts. “At the time we were very concerned that Microsoft’s mobile strategy would be successful,” Schmidt said during a 2012 legal fight with Oracle over Java, a more uncertain statement. After many back and forth, Android ended up annihilating Windows Mobile and Windows Phone, and thus became the equivalent of Windows on computers, but in the world of cell phones. The supposed rival was always Apple, not Android.
Gates’ confession, however obvious, remains surprising. Many had assumed that Microsoft’s missed mobile opportunity was a mistake of the era of Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. Ballmer mocked the iPhone and called it “the most expensive phone in the world that doesn’t attract business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.” Although Ballmer accepted that the iPhone could sell well, it clearly missed the concept consumers were looking for. These first steps were misconstructing Microsoft’s general mobile errors. The company spent months arguing internally about whether the company should rule out its efforts from Windows Mobile, which at the time was not friendly to the touch system like Iphone, and which was born from an era of stylus devices. At an emergency meeting in December 2008, Microsoft decided to scrap Windows Mobile and completely restart its mobile efforts with Windows Phone. Another prototype dead as at the end of this year will no longer feature Whatsapp. The last of Microsoft’s dropins in the field of cell phones.
The funny thing is that Bill Gates, in his day-to-day life, uses a Smartphone with Android. Let’s remember that he left the position of CEO in 2000, and assumed the role of lead software architect during the crucial years leading up to Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Windows Vista errors. He eventually retired as software chief in July 2008 and continued as president of the company until Satya Nadella assumed the position of CEO at 2014.Es more than possible that he had not been directly involved in managing some of the decisions Microsoft mobiles, but their departure came right in the middle of Microsoft missing the opportunity with Android. If we compare, just as he now took on this failed opportunity as the worst mistake ever, Ballmer said Windows Vista was his greatest regret at Microsoft before his farewell. Anyway, Microsoft always thrives: “It’s amazing to me that i’ve made one of the biggest mistakes of all time (let Android go) and yet our other assets like Windows and Office remain the strongest, so we’re a leading company,” Gates says. “If we had got that right, we’d be THE leading company, but good,” he added with a laugh. In this note:
