Bill Gates recently admitted in an interview that Microsoft made a mistake that cost the company $400 billion. He explained that his mismanagement and the lack of development were the reasons for this. Android co-founder Rich Miner commented on this, stating that he deliberately developed Android to prevent Microsoft’s control over the mobile market.
Who is talking to whom? In an interview with Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz, Bill Gates discussed the biggest failure during his time at Microsoft. Gates acknowledged that the decision not to seize the emerging mobile market early on cost Microsoft a huge opportunity. Microsoft simply missed the development of an operating system like Android. He stated (via Windows Central):
“The biggest mistake of all time is the mismanagement that I exhibited, which led to Microsoft not becoming what Android is.”
What was the reason for the failure? According to Gates, it was primarily due to mismanagement and the legal challenges that plagued Microsoft in the early 2000s. When Google acquired Android in 2005 and launched its first device in 2008, Microsoft was already too late.
Gates further explained that the mobile market is a “winner-takes-all” market, where the dominant operating system controls the entire market. “There is exactly room for one non-Apple operating system, and what is that worth? $400 billion that would have flowed from Google to Microsoft,” Gates explained.
Microsoft missed this opportunity, which led to a huge loss of money and influence.
Android: The Answer to Microsoft
What is Android’s perspective? Rich Miner, one of the co-founders of Android, offers a different perspective on this missed opportunity. He said:
I literally developed Android to prevent Microsoft from controlling mobile, just as they did with PCs – and stifled innovation.
Miner found it “funny” to hear Gates lamenting about the loss in the mobile sector: “[I find] it always amusing to hear Gates complain about Microsoft losing to Android in mobile.”
By the way, Miner was already involved in the development of Windows Mobile back in 2002. Due to the knowledge he gained there, he likely chose to develop Android as a counter-design.
He added that he viewed the whole process as a kind of “necessity” to prevent Microsoft from controlling this area to the same extent as they did with PCs. But what about the competition between Microsoft and Google? The CEO of Microsoft sees it as an opportunity.
