Bill Gates says his greatest mistake ever was Microsoft losing to Google Android

Bill Gates: Windows Phone failed because I was too distracted by an
antitrust case

no, it failed because it was too little, too late.

by the time windows phone came out, android had already established
themselves and windows phone offered no advantages over either of
those, especially with limited developer support.

The OP article is confusing. The Gates quotes in the OP mention both
Windows Mobile AND Windows Phone. Windows Mobile was actually quite
promising and it was out during the MS antitrust case era, and before
Android.

In article , M. L.
wrote:

Bill Gates: Windows Phone failed because I was too distracted by an
antitrust case

no, it failed because it was too little, too late.

by the time windows phone came out, android had already established
themselves and windows phone offered no advantages over either of
those, especially with limited developer support.

The OP article is confusing. The Gates quotes in the OP mention both
Windows Mobile AND Windows Phone. Windows Mobile was actually quite
promising and it was out during the MS antitrust case era, and before
Android.

windows mobile was out before ios and android, but it was primitive and
not promising at all.

microsoft knew that, and ditched it for windows phone 7, and then
ditched that for windows phone 8, which ****ed off both users and
developers, thereby helping ios and android become the two dominant
mobile platforms.

Bill Gates: Windows Phone failed because I was too distracted by an
antitrust case

no, it failed because it was too little, too late.

by the time windows phone came out, android had already established
themselves and windows phone offered no advantages over either of
those, especially with limited developer support.

The OP article is confusing. The Gates quotes in the OP mention both
Windows Mobile AND Windows Phone. Windows Mobile was actually quite
promising and it was out during the MS antitrust case era, and before
Android.

windows mobile was out before ios and android, but it was primitive and
not promising at all.

Agree to disagree. Windows Mobile had an intuitive interface, apps were
easy to install/uninstall, some Windows app compatibility, and it had a
simple and reliable backup/restore that allowed restore without losing data.

In article , M. L.
wrote:

Bill Gates: Windows Phone failed because I was too distracted by an
antitrust case

no, it failed because it was too little, too late.

by the time windows phone came out, android had already established
themselves and windows phone offered no advantages over either of
those, especially with limited developer support.

The OP article is confusing. The Gates quotes in the OP mention both
Windows Mobile AND Windows Phone. Windows Mobile was actually quite
promising and it was out during the MS antitrust case era, and before
Android.

windows mobile was out before ios and android, but it was primitive and
not promising at all.

Agree to disagree. Windows Mobile had an intuitive interface, apps were
easy to install/uninstall, some Windows app compatibility, and it had a
simple and reliable backup/restore that allowed restore without losing data.

nowhere near the level of ios and android.

trying to get a desktop os to run on a mobile device brings *numerous*
compromises and guaranteed to fail, which is exactly what happened.

windows mobile was out before ios and android, but it was primitive and
not promising at all.

Agree to disagree. Windows Mobile had an intuitive interface, apps were
easy to install/uninstall, some Windows app compatibility, and it had a
simple and reliable backup/restore that allowed restore without losing data.

nowhere near the level of ios and android.

Windows Mobile backup/restore was superior to and more reliable than the
current Android backup/restore. The nearest Android analogue would be TWRP.

trying to get a desktop os to run on a mobile device brings *numerous*
compromises and guaranteed to fail, which is exactly what happened.

Windows Mobile never tried to run a Windows desktop OS on it.

In article , M. L.
wrote:

windows mobile was out before ios and android, but it was primitive and
not promising at all.

Agree to disagree. Windows Mobile had an intuitive interface, apps were
easy to install/uninstall, some Windows app compatibility, and it had a
simple and reliable backup/restore that allowed restore without losing
data.

nowhere near the level of ios and android.

Windows Mobile backup/restore was superior to and more reliable than the
current Android backup/restore. The nearest Android analogue would be TWRP.

android backup/restore is a mess, but that wasn't the only thing you
listed.

not the case for ios, which backs up everything via a usb cable to a
mac or windows pc or to the cloud or both.

buy a new iphone (or replace a lost/stolen one) and during setup, it
asks if you want to restore from a previous backup or set up as a new
device. recent versions of ios can sync directly between devices,
without a separate computer or cloud.

https://support.apple.com/library/co...are/images/en_
US/iOS/ios13-iphone-xs-setup-restore-from-icloud-apps-and-data-cropped.j
pg

trying to get a desktop os to run on a mobile device brings *numerous*
compromises and guaranteed to fail, which is exactly what happened.

Windows Mobile never tried to run a Windows desktop OS on it.

that's what windows mobile *was*, just slimmed down for mobile, and
fundamentally a mouse/keyboard ui, which is why they had a physical
keyboard and a stylus.

that is the *wrong* paradigm for a mobile device.

ios completely redesigned the user interface for touch, making it *far*
more intuitive and easier to use, which android later copied.

https://i.imgur.com/5cv4dpM.jpg