Android is the standard non-Apple phone platform! According to Gates “there is room for exactly one non-Apple operating system.”
Microsoft has been beating Apple in the computer industry, but they admit failing to evolve fast enough in the smartphone era. Yes, Microsoft produced their very own mobile operating system in 2000, called the Windows Mobile, but it was later blown out of the water when Apple debuted its iPhone in 2007 and right after Google’s Android platform in 2008. Although Microsoft had a mobile operating system first, it could not compete with the iOS and Android systems.
Gate’s company clearly had the skill set to complete that task but they simply didn’t do it, and this is what the Microsoft co-founder regrets.
Bill Gates expressed that failure to be the dominant mobile operating system was due to being distracted during the antitrust trial and so the company failed in how it assigned staff to work on the mobile operating system.
Microsoft was accused by the Department of Justice, 20 states and the District of Columbia of illegal, anti-competitive and exclusionary practises and it cost the company billions of dollars which ultimately fell into the pockets of Google.
Even though failed to develop an operating system to rival Apple’s iOS they have other assets like Windows and Office which are still very strong, so they are a leading company.
Image Source: Dominic Lipinksi