Bill Gates Regrets Microsoft Losing to Android as Dominant Platform Beyond iPhone

[xpxp2002]

The saddest part of it all is that the competition that Windows Phone provided influenced a lot of consequential and positive improvements for mobile devices during that era.

Microsoft pioneered the idea of "pocket-to-picture" by requiring a dedicated two-stage camera button on every Windows Phone for a long time, which ultimately led Apple to configure the volume buttons to act as makeshift shutter buttons and put a dedicated camera button the lock screen. Both changes are now near-ubiquitous among Android phones as well.

Windows Phone was also very aggressive about keeping clutter out of the way by hiding irrelevant status icons from the top status bar so that the entire screen could be used for app content. Tapping the top of the screen would temporarily bring the full status bar into view. We now see this effort making its way to iPhone with the iPhone X/XS "ears" that only show minimal status information and encourage apps to fully use the space available on the display.

 

[redman042]

Yeah I thought it was a real shame that the windows phone didn’t take off. I thought it had great potential as a phone, and more importantly, the potential to make the windows ecosystem all around a much better competitor to Apple’s ecosystem than Google’s chrome+android ecosystem.

The main problem I noticed with it was that the underlying OS and development tools were ****. That was after extended delay rewriting the OS to try to make it better. By the time they sort of had their **** together, the platform was so far behind on third party app support that there was no hope of catching up. Developers had moved on and Android was very well established by then.

 

[TGM85]

Ballmer underestimated the potential for the iPhone when it launched in 2007, what he didn’t realize, it wasn’t about the hardware, it was about the iOS experience that would change the game forever.

True, but I don't think anyone back in 2007 foresaw the massive changes the iPhone would bring about. Most people, including me, just expected it to be an iPod you could use to make calls and send texts, perhaps do some slightly awkward mobile browsing on.

Almost no one back then expected that a small device you can keep in your pocket would become the center of your (digital) life and displace the desktop or portable computer as people's primary point of internet access.

 

[BvizioN]

I would take Windows mobile OS anytime over Android.
Too bad, MS was far too late on the game and developers weren't interested.

 

[iapplelove]

It was the App Store/

“There’s an app for that” campaign, everyone wanted an iPhone..

 

[alexandr]

Interesting how he frames it as having lost to Android instead of losing to Android and Apple.

because that goes without saying

 

[BvizioN]

"it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard"
That gave me a good laugh :')

It was a different time then. BB swore by its keyboards! Samsung was pretty quick to adopt and look where they are now. BB, Nokia, Microsoft, etc had no vision and failed where they could have succeeded.

 

[hermes16]

Yep, that's what people want a phone that is as easily hacked as their computers.

 

[Falhófnir]

Gates says MS was in the perfect position but blew it. I would like to know more about exactly what he thinks MS could have done to gain market dominance ... just respond quicker? Or is there more to what he thinks they could have done?

As we’ve seen, first to market doesnt always mean total dominance.

I used a couple of Nokia Lumia models at the time - big mistakes on MS part were the clean break transition from WP7 to WP8 - they literally dropped all their phones and started again, some of which were under a year old. It was necessary to update all the underlying architecture to be in line with modern windows, but very poorly handled. The worse part though was that once they had what they wanted in WP8 it often felt like abandonware. They were so slow to implement new features that had been out for years on Android and iOS - support for HD screen resolutions, notification/ quick actions centre, support for 1080p and then 4K video recording and the higher frame rate variants to name just a handful of things. I think at one point Nokia even twisted Microsoft's arm to let them write their own feature/ firmware for a couple of models it got so bad.

 

[NightFox]

I admire Bill Gates. He is not speaking in platitudes. He is talking about the tech, not the customer experience. He is not worried about shareholders.
Even better, he probably was only involved at a very high level but yet takes all the blame.

I suspect that Bill Gates knows very well that when he talks about mistakes "he" made, everyone knows exactly who he's actually pointing the finger squarely at.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I'm an Apple zealot but I really like what Nadella is doing with Microsoft and I'm glad Ballmer is gone.

Satya opposed Ballmer's misguided Nokia buyout from the start, is leading MS in the cloud, expanding MS's presence in games again and opening up software and development tools like VisualStudio to Linux and Mac. Heck even Flight Simulator is making a comeback! A Microsoft that leans into its strengths is good for the whole tech industry imo.

Also I think Windows Phone was a sleek platform and I'm sorry it didn't take Android's spot as the defacto 'open' OS in the smartphone space. I much prefer straight up Hardware/Software companies like Apple and Microsoft, as opposed to pseudo tech advertising giants like Google.

I legit miss Windows mobile. As much as I like having a nice background, Tiles and Live Tiles were and continue to be a quick, efficient way to access a lot of information on the go.

 

[hermes16]

Was all about the UI. Tiles were bad. Sad all around.

it looks like it was designed by someone that suffers from schizophrenia.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

iOS and Android are going to be hard to beat, but Huawei's mobile OS might stand a chance if it gets a start with traction in China.

(I don't mean this as a political post, I just see an opportunity for a new OS that might get backing in it's home country, I'm interested in what a new OS starting from zero would be like)

Except that it will just be another fork of android.

 

[StuBeck]

Ballmer underestimated the potential for the iPhone when it launched in 2007, what he didn’t realize, it wasn’t about the hardware, it was about the iOS experience that would change the game forever.

Whats usually forgotten is the context where he said the stupid comments. It was a $600 phone that required a contract and didn't have 3G, which in 2007 was crazy. Apple responded to that criticism quickly by lowering the price, and then the next version was a much more reasonable $200 on contract with the App Store which changed everything.

 

[joueboy]

Ballmer is the reason for the failure. Microsoft was so much better since he left they were able to think outside their box not just relying on their success and dominance.

 

[alphaswift]

I owned a Lumia 950 before switching to Iphone. If Microsoft hadn't messed up their app store, i'd still be using Windows Mobile. It was an excellent OS. I wish Apple would steal some ideas from it, especially Live Tiles.

 

[StuBeck]

I legit miss Windows mobile. As much as I like having a nice background, Tiles and Live Tiles were and continue to be a quick, efficient way to access a lot of information on the go.

Feel the same. I switched from iPhone to Windows Phone 7 and loved it. Tiles made sense and were a great compromise between the lack of Widgets on iPhone and the problems with Android. It still has the best mapping app I've ever used as well. The phone took amazing pictures and also had great integration with the cloud. A lot of what they did in the early 2010s lead the way for what Android and iPhone have been doing recently.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I doubt even with the early start, Microsoft would have gained much more traction than they actually did. Their brand and industrial design was never exactly on par with Apple.

 

[alien3dx]

it is good and i use the HP I PAQ before the I PHONE era. The symbian era is great, battery life 5 days and keyboard. Apple going to route like microsoft want to do one platform but only apple doing it right way.

 

[JTK66]

Interesting how he frames it as having lost to Android instead of losing to Android and Apple.

I think he realizes that competing to beat Apple is futile due to their built-out store reach, clientele, unique OS and brand name. Android doesn't have the hardware and software monopoly as it's a commodity, which is Microsoft's wheelhouse. Not to say Google and Microsoft can't make good/great hardware, it's just not the same as they still sell their software to other manufacturers.

 

[fourthtunz]

Microsoft really didn't have a chance to beat android...cause the android people came from within Apple and copied it, not very well, just like widows copied Mac not very well.

 

[lkrupp]

Interesting how he frames it as having lost to Android instead of losing to Android and Apple.

To this day most tech CEOs and Wall Street consider Apple to be an aberration who doesn’t play by the rules, whose existence cannot be explained by traditional business norms. Amazing.

 

[agffth]

Ballmer underestimated the potential for the iPhone when it launched in 2007, what he didn’t realize, it wasn’t about the hardware, it was about the iOS experience that would change the game forever.

That's ironic as Gates and Allen foresaw the software industry when everyone else was focused on hardware.

 

[ralpa]

Any reporter has ever asked Ballmer again about what he thinks about the phones now?

 

[Akrapovic]

I had one of the big Nokia blue bricks running Windows Phone. And it was fantastic. Really great device...with no good apps at all. I much preferred it to Android.