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

[cardfan]

I agree with Gates on mobile but also think that specifically it was not buying Palm and webOS. HP was a joke but I do remember them having some sort of stupid vision of making a windows skin with it or something. But webOS integration with windows needed to come from MS to have any chance.

I may be biased but the excitement with webOS and Pre far outshined any iphone love during that time. I loved that OS. I only reluctantly returned to iphone with a 3GS but the iphone 4 got me over it pretty quick.

 

[johnsc3]

At least he is honest about it. Most will point to Ballmer, which is fair, but Bill still had as much pull as he wanted during this time frame. Very true though, Android should be the Windows equivalent to macOS/iOS. They really blew it when it comes to mobile. I have admired their approach recently under the new CEO, but mobile is too far gone at this point.

Agreed. When they acquired Danger, they failed to capitalize on that. When iPhone came out, the could have easily went to Motorola, whose stubbornness with the RCKR, played a part in the development of the iPhone. I think Moto would have been more apt to listen and partner with to M$ given their missteps with Jobs.

 

[peletrane]

Haven't posted here in YEARS! First post in a long time. lol, I really wish I had kept my original iPhone. I waited til 2008 to buy one. I originally considered it back then an iPod Plus, basically. Texting wasn't even big in 2008, at least in the US. I think it was called "SMSing" in the UK.

Where did the years ago? I remember Balmer's reaction very well. Good thing he's got the Clippers now, after Donald Sterling did what the Donald Sterling's of the world do.

Still have my 2007 Mac Pro, even! Damn DVD drive doesn't work though Oh well.

 

[zelman]

Microsoft’s biggest blunder was purchasing and then killing Danger. A flagship Sidekick/Hiptop could have kept them afloat.

 

[mi7chy]

Ballmer did to Microsoft what Cook is doing to Apple.

Not all is lost for Microsoft since they now have someone competent, Nadella, at the helm and they're still dominant in Windows desktop OS and server OS for Windows clients and have huge potential with Windows on ARM which is a better fusion of mobile OS with desktop capabilities than ChromeOS > Android > iPadOS.

 

[tongxinshe]

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)

Technically speaking, that so-called "Huawei's mobile OS" is not a separate OS, it's just another variation of Android, unlike Tizen or WebOS.

 

[Zaft]

It’s unfortunate because windows phone os was actually really cool. Too late because of Ballmer.

 

[hermes16]

With Windows 2000 having 65,000 know bugs on it's release.. can you imagine how little they would care about your phone.

 

[RogerWilco]

Two words Bill: Spot Watch. In the mobile space you pushed a glorified beeper and Apple went a different direction with iPod. The rest is history.

 

[RogerWilco]

I agree with Gates on mobile but also think that specifically it was not buying Palm and webOS. HP was a joke but I do remember them having some sort of stupid vision of making a windows skin with it or something. But webOS integration with windows needed to come from MS to have any chance.

HP's contribution was far from a joke. Go back a few years and you’ll see it was HP designing the hardware for Microsoft's Stinger smartphone. The HP engineers had the phone hardware ready and had to tell Gates that his software was complete trash because it had latencies measured in seconds for even simple stuff like answering a call. Balmer's first task as CEO was canceling the phone project and they ended up bulldozing over $400MM worth of phones in a landfill. After that fiasco perhaps it’s understandable that he was reluctant for a repeat?

 

[Constable Odo]

Tim Cook should be regretting he let Android take over the smartphone world by such dominating margin. Jeez, each time I check, the iPhone has lost even more market share. The Chinese seem to have a working formula of simply undercutting Apple in price at every level without suffering any consequences. Each year they come back stronger. Apple raising prices is not a practical solution.

 

[Jimmy James]

Ballmer publicly balked at the iPhone price. So ironic that smartphones with Windows software cost the same in that era. It’s like he didn’t know about his own market. MS never had any chance in the mobile arena with a Ballmer at the helm. None.

 

[Tech198]

pfft @ Ballmer "no keyboard" THEN.

What the hell do you expect a first gen to have ? If you have a swiss army knife with all the bells & whistles everyone wanted, they'd be nothing to improve on.

It makes a great impression, but it would be a very short time in business

 

[macdrej]

It took about another year or two before my coworkers started jumping on the iPhone train en masse.

In all fairness, if you had a Palm or Blackberry, you basically had to wait until the iPhone 4 to be able to continue to use all sorts of basic functions that you’ve grown accustomed to on your smartphone and yet took Apple ages to match. People forget that it took them three years to add something as simple as video recording. Another year for copy and paste. Copy. And. Paste.
[doublepost=1561410005][/doublepost]

Tim Cook should be regretting he let Android take over the smartphone world by such dominating margin. Jeez, each time I check, the iPhone has lost even more market share. The Chinese seem to have a working formula of simply undercutting Apple in price at every level without suffering any consequences. Each year they come back stronger. Apple raising prices is not a practical solution.

it would be easier for apple to lower prices if they could just steal all the ideas the chinese have.
[doublepost=1561410142][/doublepost]

Texting wasn't even big in 2008, at least in the US.

I dunno, wasn‘t it the golden age of everyone typing away on their blackberries?

 

[Tech198]

In all fairness, if you had a Palm or Blackberry, you basically had to wait until the iPhone 4 to be able to continue to use all sorts of basic functions that you’ve grown accustomed to on your smartphone and yet took Apple ages to match. People forget that it took them three years to add something as simple as video recording. Another year for copy and paste. Copy. And. Paste.
[doublepost=1561410005][/doublepost]

it would be easier for apple to lower prices if they could just steal all the ideas the chinese have.
[doublepost=1561410142][/doublepost]

I dunno, wasn‘t it the golden age of everyone typing away on their blackberries?

But Apple cares about quality... Chinese probably make the best stuff, but the first thing i'd be scared of is "My iPhone is now more likely, a portable device"

 

[Kram Sacul]

It’s a shame that Windows Phone was so mishandled, both by Ballmer and the current idiot CEO. A very beautiful and elegant UI and awesome hardware from Nokia. Nothing from Apple or Google has even come close to it.

 

[Gudi]

These are winner-take-all markets. […]

… our other assets, Windows, Office, are still very strong… we are a leading company. If we'd gotten that right, we'd be the leading company.

You are a dying company. Your other assets are almost worthless, because as someone already told you: This is a winner-takes-it-all market.

 

[femike]

Bill Gates still the greedy person he always was.
Bill instead should have regrets that he destroyed Nokia's platform from the inside, but no, he regrets Microsoft failed to make use of that and regrets Microsoft doesn't have the 80% marketshare in mobile. Both Microsoft and Google are monopolists, as bad as each other.

 

[techwhiz]

Microsoft owned the handset before the iPhone and BlackBerry was not that important.
I owned several Windows Mobile phones. The best was the Treo 700w. It was Palm hardware with Windows Mobile.
Microsoft failed to listen to customers. Before the iPhone we asked for finger input instead of a stylus and got nothing.
Microsoft didn't lose, just like BlackBerry they failed to respond to customers and failed to innovate.

Companies that fail to respond to customers and fail to innovate don't deserve the money of consumers.

 

[shanson27]

K a r m a ! Windows did the same with Macs

 

[jgbr]

a lot of Gates bashing here by the fan boy crowd who refuse to see apples faults. Jobs and Gates, amongst many others were a generation who deserve respect for what they did - for right or wrong. Microsoft has achieved a lot it should be proud of, just as apple has.

But just like we are finally seeing again as the AMD versus Intel battle restarts; google versus apple seems an unbalanced fight. A really good third competitor breaking up androids monopoly would benefit innovation in the mobile OS market.

 

[tevion5]

Wellll...isn't that Apple's approach?

Never said it was a bad thing! Has usually served Apple well overall and makes them a bit unique.

 

[itguy06]

I think the point is that Apple showed you the iPad and you still want a laptop. Most consumers don't care about laptops anymore which is why Apple stopped caring. Or maybe Apple stopped caring first but does it really matter when everyone knows what the future of computing is?

Laptop complaints just sound like someone complaining about an iPod today. It's over, move on to the next technology platform.

I'm curious - outside of the Apple Echo Chamber who cares about iPads? Most who tried them to replace their laptop regretted it and gave up. Even the Apple Cheerleaders have a hard time with it when they try. I'm a regular Mac Power Users listener and it's comical when they try to make an iPad work as a computer. Always having issues and brushing them off and hoping Apple gets it right in the next version.

I tried and gave up. Bought a Surface. It's what Apple should have made - a tablet that doubles as a computer. Yes Win 10 is not as good of a tablet but it's good enough. Running real apps is what is needed, not a bigger phone.

 

[Abazigal]

I'm curious - outside of the Apple Echo Chamber who cares about iPads? Most who tried them to replace their laptop regretted it and gave up. Even the Apple Cheerleaders have a hard time with it when they try. I'm a regular Mac Power Users listener and it's comical when they try to make an iPad work as a computer. Always having issues and brushing them off and hoping Apple gets it right in the next version.

I tried and gave up. Bought a Surface. It's what Apple should have made - a tablet that doubles as a computer. Yes Win 10 is not as good of a tablet but it's good enough. Running real apps is what is needed, not a bigger phone.

The bulk of people who bought iPads don’t care that it can’t replace their laptops. That’s the whole draw for them - that it’s nothing like a laptop. It’s really the echo chamber here who make such a huge deal about the iPad missing features such as mouse support when the reality is that it simply isn’t a dealbreaker for the majority of their users.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

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

Basically he’s saying that Apple would have had the dominant UI tech anyways, but MS still had a chance to beat Google if certain decisions were not made after the iPhone came out.