Bill Gates said that his “greatest mistake” was not challenging iOS and bringing Microsoft into the mobile space. He said that it would have been “natural” for Microsoft to be the main challenger to iOS, but the failure do that cost his firm $400 billion via (Cult of Mac).
Bill Gates: Space For Only One iOS Challenger
Addressing an audience at venture capital firm Village Global Mr. Gates said:
In the software world, particularly for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. That is, Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win.
“It really is winner take all,” Mr. Gates added. “If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom.” He explained that “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.”
Bill, your greatest mistake is a tie between hiring Ballmer, letting your company think every OS had to be a variant of Windows, and allowing your company to kill Courier.
Undo these and many things change.