Sorry, Bill": Android co-founder says Bill Gates is responsible for "the greatest mistake of all time," costing Microsoft $400 billion

[Windows Central]

Bill Gates revealed his greatest mistake of all time made Microsoft miss its opportunity with Android, partly due to mismanagement and antitrust-related issues. However, Android co-founder Rich Miner says Bill Gates is more responsible than he's letting on.

Sorry, Bill": Android co-founder says Bill Gates is responsible for "the greatest mistake of all time," costing Microsoft $400 billion : Read more

 

[MullenWP]

"If you’re there with half as many apps or 90% as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom."
Exactly. I heard too many comments about how many top apps were on WP, and how "fans" thought all they need are available on WP. The issue is in reality it was barely 90% for top apps (not keep maintained), less than 50% for all apps, and probably less than 10% for games (I understand WP "fans" don't care about mobile games, but if both iOS and Android list games at the top level (same as apps), that means it's extremely important for a successful mobile platform).

 

[Jcmg62]

I remember the excitement with every new hardware launch, the beauty and uniqueness of windows phone 7, the acquisition of Nokia and the development of cortana. There were some phenomenal highlights.

I also remember the unbelievable levels of stupidity, to the point of self sabotage, from windows phone management...

Launching Microsoft apps on iOS and Android, but not WP,

Pushing OS updates that left hardware behind literally a year after launch,

A marked decline in build quality

Windows 10 mobile.... Still a complete WtF moment.

A near constant change in management, with every new leader trying to put a different spin on things and essentially hitting reset every time.

I get the whole app gap issue, and the fact that Microsoft were pushing a rock uphill, but OMG they literally punched themselves in the balls again and again.

It was sad, pathetic, appallingly poor mismanagement, driven by small dick energy within Microsoft that killed Windows phone.

 

[Ron-F]

It was poorly managed from beginning to end. Microsoft just didn’t believe Apple would be able to get it right so fast. They were late to the market and their products weren’t competitive. WP7’s interface was fantastic, but the development platform was a dead end. WP8 was not backwards compatible and required new hardware. Finally the start promising Win10 in the phones, but it was already too late.

 

[JoshRos]

Microsoft Phone is needed today more than ever. Even if they started again today, they would start from the same point they exited but their store is so much more mature and with Game Pass Cloud it would be the top opportunity especially now that Android is tightening its grasp on users and many will be looking for a way out of this lack of privacy nightmare.

But letting Panos go and now other key members of the hardware design team... tough luck.

 

[Chris Lovett1]

Funny story, I was on a task force to think about the future of mobile back in 2003 at Microsoft, back then we saw the Compaq iPaq device and we saw the flip phone and it was easy to conclude these will merge, we went back to the VP of mobile at the time and said so, and his response was "sorry, Bill is only interested in tablets right now"... Doh! We should have pushed harder...

 

[Zen]

Microsoft chose to focus on tablets even harder after they failed in the mobile phone market. I guess Microsoft really regrets not copying the Java language and instead trying to do their own thing. Oh they could have also taken open source software and turned it into a paid product, didn't have to be Java. The judges in the Google vs Java case didn't seem to understand fair use even with Google admitting that they stole code because if they didn't then it wouldn't attract users to their platform.

If taking code and changing variable names is enough to not be copyright infringement, then I guess we all should be taking someone else's work and changing it a little. Its like cheating in school: "Yeah you can copy my homework but change it a little so the teacher thinks its different."

 

[lpasca]

People forget the context.

1) Microsoft had a lot of history with anti-trust. Dominating the smartphone market would have been a clear path to a Microsoft split up, and Gates knew that.

2) Microsoft would not have accepted the government "oversight" that Google and Apple almost certainly have. It would have been too much of a risk to their core business, the enterprise market, where customer data privacy also from government is key. Not so for consumers, particularly with perceived "free" services such as unencrypted cloud backup which allows snooping on practically everyone with a smartphone on the planet.

 

[MPetrozio]

Apps diversity seemed to be the biggest problem for WP. But here's the thing. The whole idea of apps on early smartphones was because web browsers at that time were not mature enough to handle what apps can do. With modern browsers and PWA's, this is now mostly irrelevant for most apps that don't really need to integrate the devices hardware in meaningful ways, like GPS for example. Microsoft has a shot now to correct its former errors. I'd love to see the return of WP! Copilot Phone anyone?

 

[Jeffery L]

Android became the market leader in mobile operating systems by breaking the law. In the early days of Android, it was given away for free to OEMs. That is a violation of predatory pricing in the anti-trust laws. They have corrected that and now charge licensing for Google Mobile Services like Google Play Store, Google Maps, and Gmail, which are essential for a complete Android experience. Android being free in the beginning is what caused the rapid adoption. The core of Android is still free under open source, which I consider that still predatory pricing.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

"If you’re there with half as many apps or 90% as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom."
Exactly. I heard too many comments about how many top apps were on WP, and how "fans" thought all they need are available on WP. The issue is in reality it was barely 90% for top apps (not keep maintained), less than 50% for all apps, and probably less than 10% for games (I understand WP "fans" don't care about mobile games, but if both iOS and Android list games at the top level (same as apps), that means it's extremely important for a successful mobile platform).

Ironically, MS had a natural advantage with games thanks to Xbox that they (almost) completely ignored. You could boost Gamerscore via games on Windows Phone, but that was about it.

One of the most essential elements to strategy is leveraging strengths. MS did this right (mostly) with Office, but ignored their unique strength in gaming. Neither Apple nor Google could have offered as good a mobile gaming experience. MS reasoned that smartphone buyers were primarily business users who didn't care about gaming, so not worth "wasting" effort to appeal to gamers who would "never" buy a smartphone.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

People forget the context.

1) Microsoft had a lot of history with anti-trust. Dominating the smartphone market would have been a clear path to a Microsoft split up, and Gates knew that.

2) Microsoft would not have accepted the government "oversight" that Google and Apple almost certainly have. It would have been too much of a risk to their core business, the enterprise market, where customer data privacy also from government is key. Not so for consumers, particularly with perceived "free" services such as unencrypted cloud backup which allows snooping on practically everyone with a smartphone on the planet.

I think you're right on #1, though technically this was quite a bit after the antitrust danger had mostly passed. Still, I think you're right that it heavily colored MS' thinking.

But on #2, I think that's based more on today's perspective than on anything circa 2008-2012, when the die was cast. I do agree that MS had a better enterprise security model (by far) at the time, but privacy FROM GOVERNMENT was not a big marketing concern until Apple made that apparent in refusing to give the U.S. government help unlocking personal iPhones in criminal investigations. By that point, Windows Phone was already in a sad state.

 

[badbadm]

To me the biggest challenge Windows Phone had was not Apple. It was Google. Google had the one juggernaut that people were interested in viewing on mobile. Namely YouTube. Google was always trying to sabotage Windows Phone. And the comments earlier from the originators proves this. Google pulled their Gmail ports from WP, then they pulled the YouTube port. Then when MS made their own port. Google eventually blocked that port. When you block that thing the kids are watching constantly racking up those data bills. Bye bye main stream customers. I was using Windows mobile since Windows CE. And yes, when Panos left all of the personal hardware steam went with him.

But that wasn't what really killed Windows Mobile. It was when Steve Ballmer left. There was no more fight left in Microsoft when he left. He set MS for success namely Azure, XBOX and the Nokia phone division purchase. He knew. I know Satya mentioned there not needing to be another player in the phone market. But there obviously needs to be. At first I thought maybe yeah Satya pulled the plug on Windows Mobile...but why would he send like a boat load of phones to his homeland to inspire innovation then pull the plug? I have come to the conclusion the board wants nothing to do with commercial consumer hardware if possible. Hence, this whole Incase deal and Surface branded hardware and this CoPilot button on the keyboard....Come' on. CoPilot button? Screams shove this down their throat by any means necessary. At least the Windows key and task menu key are useful even if you are not using a PC. I know I know it's just a picture on the keyboard...but you don't put pictures on the keyboard for a IP that may change name or logo. We never seen a office button? I think that we can all agree will be around for a very long time on many platforms.

I am a MicroSoftie. I am very passionate about the company. I think the article is click bait and I bit it hard and got thrown in the boat and clubbed and served up. But I don't think Bill was wrong. Some battles are fought in the future, some in the present.

You see Amazon raising a fit every time Azure wins a fed contract, they believe they "deserve". MS is pulling an IBM move. Shedding the fat namely hardware and focusing on products that are biz facing.

All that yammering to say... What do you guys think if the XBOX division picked up the Surface Duo baton? Remember users were using it like a portable switch for some time. They have publicly said they have to focus on this whole hand held twitch, stream market. Would gamers drop their iPhones and 5 pound android phones and get a lighter streroided up Surface Duo? It would immediately have a customer base...No reason to kill that off. Shareholders like money.. They couldn't kill off XBox cuz it was ahem...making money

 

[GraniteStateColin]

Wow, I'm not a huge Bill Gates fan -- I think he was too harsh in how he fought and clawed and, in some cases, lied for market share -- but if those tweets and words are representative of Rich Miner's normal way of talking, then he seems like a real jerk. (I don't know the guy, so maybe these are out of context or isolated bad comments.) Gates says he made a mistake, just giving business history, and Miner publicly reacts by attacking him and criticizes him for "whining"?

While Gates was always ruthless in his competition and in forcing his distributors and partners to work with MS at the exclusion of others (something I find unethical) and created the unhealthy culture of internal cutthroat competition within MS that is still visible as the heavily siloed company MS is today, he always cared greatly for Microsoft's customers. I doubt he approved of the way Nadella kicked Windows Phone users to the curb, even if he agreed that Windows Phone could not succeed.

The proper response when someone apologizes or says they made a mistake they regret is to give them some grace, not kick them like a member of an angry mob with a laughing-so-hard-I'm-crying emoji. Even if not representative of Miner's normal words, that was a despicable post.

 

[kltye]

Satya has been great for shareholders, but sucks badly for consumer-facing products. I know enterprise is where the money is, but Apple isn't exactly a podunk company barely scraping by. I don't understand why they can't get that into their heads. The question is: Will Satya/Bill learn from this, or are they just going to continue with business as usual? And no, AI doesn't mean jack **** in the consumer space either.

 

[ShinyProton]

Windows Phone was just another victim of a Microsoft strategy that became a habit.
When management stopped considering a project, whatever how promising it could have been, it pulled the plug.
No wonder why the Microsoft ecosystem is now a moribond mess of irrelevant applications. Both consumers and developers are gone. Only gaming (which is about to transition) and offices (still holding) are keeping some relevance close to the OS.