Bill Gates believes Microsoft lost out on $400B by losing the smartphone market

24 June 2019
Microsoft's co-founder regrets not beating Google for the phone market.

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Maybe they should have focused on making a good mobile os , instead of trying to push down all kinds of windows desktop crap down people's throats ...

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    • Anonymous
    • 6wN
    • 25 Jun 2019

    Android phone with Windows computer is the best combination so far. I'm using them now.

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      • Anonymous
      • S2T
      • 25 Jun 2019

      As Bil Gates says, its about apps. I was in the mobile business in 2010-2014 and Windows phones in Denmark were a hard sell, in spite of great handsets from fx Samsung, because netbanking and other important apps (to the consumers) were not supported. But if the customer bought an Android or Apple product they could get a 100% use of their brand new device

        Actually, they destroyed their own prospects by completely f*cking up their strategy to expand.

        Lets go back to 2013-14. Nokia had a decent range of windows phone, with the likes of Lumia 925, Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1020 leading the way in terms of imaging and performance, with a great UI that is a hell lot more modern and intuitive than Android. They had around 3.5% market share, which although not great, was a decent niche market with millions of handsets sold around the globe. Especially in Europe and India, Windows Phone was steadily growing. The app store, despite massive gaps, had all the essential apps and it was expected to get better.

        Circa 2014-15, MS smartphone line committed suicide.

        - No outreach with OEMs to get a lot more brands to make windows phones.
        - Stupid transition from a working WP 8.1 to the buggy mess that was WP 10. The change was not needed at all.
        - Abandonment of UWP philosophy which targeted common apps across PC and WP. Instead, even MS own apps were better on other platforms. Skype was better on IOS which is criminal mismanagement.
        - No new decent/flagship/premium phones launched in 2 years. Consumers had barely any choice to replace their WP.
        - No marketing or PR to increase mindshare amongst users. No attempt to market the superior aspects of WP compared to other OS' like a very modern and live user interface slick navigation and overall stutter free feel of the OS.
        - No efforts made towards enabling support for other chipsets apart from a very limited range of Snapdragons.
        - Many more screwups that need a case study to describe!


        Even in 2016-17, they had a chance to do something radical and introduce a "full windows" phone, running a modified version of the desktop windows, with the ability to install UWP as well as legacy apps. The hardware was already there. The Zenfone 2 was capable of runnign full windows (Atom Z3580) and i am sure they could have worked it out had they put any effort into it.

        I am sure many of us will jump at the chance to own a phone that runs full windows that can act as a portable desktop with addition of a display out and peripherals. Even Samsung accomplished Dex, which showed it can be done. Instead of forking Windows to make it compatible with mobile socs (capable ones), they basically abandoned the segment. Even now, they can tap into a latent market if they introduced phones/phablets running full windows with the ability to function a full fledged computer.

        So many lost opportunities, they only have themselves to blame. Nadella came and put the final nail in the coffin. Nadella had little vision or understanding of the market.


          Anonymous, 25 Jun 2019Thought and polish on iPhone lmfao. Maybe more than wp but ... moreSome of us were here from the beginning of the ride. We still remember the likes of MotoBlur, TouchWizz, HTC sense, and Stock Android pre-4.0.3

          I would say the biggest improvements to Android devices came with ICS 4.0.3 and LP 5.1. So any Android device after 2016 has been competitive, but before then it was always a toss-up.

            They really did lose out. Their software wasn't that bad, but they should've invested more into it. They made the mistake of leaving it and now lost a potential market. Honestly they could still continue if they can work on it and market it properly. Marketing is key, look at apple. Shitty hardware, ok software, sells for at least 1k and makes so much

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              • Ulhaqpak
              • X{1
              • 25 Jun 2019

              To be honest Windows phone wasn't that bad at all but Microsoft didn't market that well also they were a bit late but yet they could have beaten the market by similar specs at lower price at start they had to go for no income but later they could have revived their ecosystem. In budget segment Windows phones were better than Android I still know quite some people who used Windows phone till now even the support was gone the reason was it wasn't getting slow.

                It was inevitable. They are slow and old.
                Consider that their Internet explorer was a giant then beaten by a small team at Mozilla with Firefox. Companies, large or small, use Google business for email and documents.

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                  • Anon
                  • XNt
                  • 25 Jun 2019

                  Thesis86, 25 Jun 2019We all lost out. Android and iOS are stagnant and still cat... moreI agree.

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                    • Tom
                    • LGd
                    • 25 Jun 2019

                    PiCosm, 24 Jun 2019Microsoft cannot do UX design, period. The tiles on their p... moreYou can't tell a clean and efficient UX when you see one. Period.

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                      • Tom
                      • LGd
                      • 25 Jun 2019

                      Anonymous, 25 Jun 2019Thing is, Nokia were still good back in the Microsoft days.... moreThey don't want to. At Nokia, they think that smartphones aren't a good business anymore, so they're just glad giving licences away.

                        We all lost out. Android and iOS are stagnant and still catching up to ideas Microsoft had 10 years ago

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                          • Anonymous
                          • 4QP
                          • 25 Jun 2019

                          It's their own fault. Every update was a reset that left most phones useless and unsupported. They destroyed Nokia.
                          They had an excessive lack of apps. And took forever with updates. It was nothing but a cool ui.

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                            • Anonymous
                            • 4QP
                            • 25 Jun 2019

                            Kangal, 25 Jun 2019Steve Balmer and Steve Elop. They both thought the "brand"... moreThought and polish on iPhone lmfao. Maybe more than wp but a dramatic far cry from what it is claimed and supposedly justifies the prices.

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                              • AnonD-794217
                              • tDR
                              • 25 Jun 2019

                              AnonD-558092, 24 Jun 2019China BANNED Google ages ago. There's a reason Chinese phon... moreYou just dealed with Huawei fanboy pretending to be an expert.

                              We saw Samsung using Bada to compete Android, now they ditched it.

                              Huawei uses forked Android, which is same as OnePlus uses CyanogenMod before, but ditched it and using OxygenOS until now.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • IsY
                                • 25 Jun 2019

                                Thing is, Nokia were still good back in the Microsoft days. It was Microsoft themselves that screwed up, largely due to the OS and the Store issues. Not only did Microsoft screw up themselves, they also screwed up the old Nokia mobile division. I am sick of third party companies like HMD having the license to sell Nokia branded phones. Let Nokia make phones for themselves and we will all see that they will have much more success.

                                  Bewildered, 25 Jun 2019Bill Gates is correct maybe because it was already establi... moreThis is just pure BS. Windows phone never outsold android, maybe in some country but not android as a whole. Windows phone died because of Microsoft stupid decision to buy out nokia. Before Microsoft bought nokia, nokia phones running WP are outselling iphone in a lot of country in South america and in some parts of Asia.

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                                    • 78ot
                                    • PUj
                                    • 25 Jun 2019

                                    I think not only mobile OS. On the desktop there nothing exciting but windows following apple to make hardware. I think Apple has built processor fast enough to run desktop class application on iPad. I think they will grow iPad into a desktop replacement. Windows on the other end has no real compatibility on arm processor. A review on windows on Arm from laptopcheck "Unfortunately, what we were left with were devices that had great battery life and good portability but underperformed when trying to do the sorts of work that people expected from a Windows laptop."

                                      Steve Balmer and Steve Elop.
                                      They both thought the "brand" Microsoft was enough to ensure their victory. They didn't know the cool things people were doing with Android, and the amount of thought and polish that went into iPhone.

                                      Windows Phone 7/7.1/7.2/7.5/8.0 were all doomed to fail. After several years and iterations, Windows Phone 8.1 was finally able to contend. But by that time it was too late.

                                      If Microsoft planned this out properly, you could have had class leading hardware from the likes of Android, mended with the polish, uniformity and security of iOS, out the gate and running. And they could have done it in either 2007, 2008, 2009, heck maybe even in 2010. But any time after that, it was too late.

                                      And if Microsoft really did come up with a new Windows Operating System, that had a consistent User Interface which scaled from phones to tablets to laptops to TV's... and the software-tools to make programs that can be deployed everywhere, they would have been unstoppable. They lacked the vision and expertise. While they eventually managed to keep the Desktop PC market with Windows10 Pro, the tablet segment is conceded to iPad, and the phone segment is conceded to the GalaxyS.

                                      For things to change, there would need to be massive shift in technology once again, and I don't think we will see that for another 5 years at the minimum, but more like another 10 years, or 20 years at the maximum.

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • KSu
                                        • 25 Jun 2019

                                        Whackcar, 24 Jun 2019It's Microsoft's own fault that they killed Windows Phone O... moreAgreed