Bill Gates recently admitted Microsoftthat’s 400 billion dollars failure of the mobile market. Android co-founder Rich miner reacted by attributing the loss of smartphone wars to Android largely to Gates’ own decisions.
“I literally helped create Android to stop Microsoft from controlling the phone like they did the PC – stifling innovation. So it’s always funny to me to hear Gates complain about losing his mobile to of Android,” Miner wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). , responding to Gates’ comments about Microsoft’s biggest mistake.
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Miner, who has direct experience on both sides of the mobile ecosystem, revealed that he was concerned about Microsoft’s potential monopolistic control of the mobile market while working on the first Windows Mobile phone.
“I helped Orange launch the first Windows Mobile phone in 2002, the SPV. I was afraid MSFT would end up controlling mobile like they did PC, I wanted something more open. So, sorry Bill, you are more responsible for losing the $400 B than you think,” Miner said.
His comments came after Gates admitted in an interview with Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz that Microsoft’s failure to become the dominant non-Apple mobile platform was “one of the biggest mistakes of all time”. Gates estimated that this mistake cost Microsoft around $400 billion in potential market value, which instead went to Google’s Android platform.
The timing of market entry has proven crucial in the mobile platform wars. While Apple launched the iPhone in June 2007 and Google’s Android followed in September 2008, Microsoft has not released Windows Phone 7 until October 2010. This delay contributed to Android and Apple ultimately being able to capture 99.9% of the mobile market share.
