Bill Gates Reveals His Biggest Regret About Windows

Android and iOS are the most used smartphone operating systems nowadays, where iOS is restricted to Apple products, Android is found on every other smartphone, phablet and tablet, making it the most widely used smartphone operating system.

Some of you might not know that Microsoft also had a smartphone operating system running on its Windows smartphones, but it didn’t gain traction. Turns out, this is what Bill Gates regrets the most. The legend might not have any regrets about his time at Microsoft, but he certainly wishes he was faster at adapting to smartphones.

Bill Gates recently spoke at a public event and hinted that he wishes Microsoft was the non-Apple phone platform. However, he was not able to grasp the opportunity as fast as Google did.

He said,

In the software world, in particular for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets, So, you know, the greatest mistake ever is the whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. Android is the standard non-Apple phone form platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win. It really is winner take all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom, There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M.

Microsoft did step in the world of smartphone OS and might still have some fans but, unfortunately, it could not persuade the developers to create apps for the platform. The company has confirmed that by 10^th December this year, all handsets running on Windows 10 Mobile will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

In the end, Gates said,

We are a leading company. If we got that one right, we would be the company. But oh well.

Image via Windows Central