At an event hosted by Village Global, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates acknowledged the strategic mistake that cost his company an estimated $400 billion opportunity.
If Bill Gates regrets something, it's good Microsoft's failure in the mobile operating system market. « In the world of software, especially for platforms, the winner takes all said Gates in a conversation with Julia Hartz, CEO of Eventbrite. “ My biggest mistake is the mismanagement that prevented Microsoft from becoming what Android is today ».
The story changed between 2007 and 2010 : Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, followed by the first Android phone in 2008. Microsoft only arrived in 2010 with Windows Phone 7, a fatal delay which allowed its competitors to seize 99.9% of the walk.
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Gates highlights the critical importance of the application ecosystem in the success of a mobile platform: “ Having only half or even 90% of the applications available dooms you to failure “. This reality has particularly affected Windows Phone, which never managed to attract enough developers.
-This strategic error stands in stark contrast to Microsoft's dominance in the PC sector. With the company now reaching a valuation of $3 trillion, Gates estimates that conquering the mobile market could have propelled Microsoft to the absolute summit of technology.
Even the most powerful companies can miss crucial technological shifts, turning opportunities into colossal financial setbacks. Today, although Microsoft remains a tech giant, this mistake remains a reminder of the importance of strategic decisions in an ever-changing industry. After graphics cards and AI, it is Nvidia which recently announced a huge strategic shift to focus on a whole new category of products.