Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates Blames Antitrust Case for Windows Mobile Losing to Android

Bill Gates also revealed that Microsoft missed the opportunity to launch a Windows Mobile-based Motorola smartphone.

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 7 November 2019 14:43 IST

Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates Blames Antitrust Case for Windows Mobile Losing to Android

Photo Credit: Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times/AFP

Bill Gates said, "If it hadn't been for the antitrust case... we were so close"

Highlights

Bill Gates passed his comments while speaking at a conference in the US
Microsoft back in late 2010 switched to Windows Phone from Windows Mobile
Motorola had helped Google gain success with Android initially

Bill Gates in his latest public appearance has asserted that Windows Mobile would have surpassed Google's Android and dominated the mobile operating system market if Microsoft hadn't been caught in an antitrust investigation with the US Justice Department. Gates, 64, stated his view while speaking at The New York Times' DealBook Conference in New York City on Wednesday. Microsoft back in late 2010 switched to Windows Phone from Windows Mobile to take on Android. However, the Redmond company faced stiff competition from Google's operating system due to massive lack of support from app developers and manufacturers.

"There's no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft, and we would have been more focussed on creating the phone operating system and so instead of using Android today you would be using Windows Mobile," claimed Gates, the principal co-founder of Microsoft, while speaking at the DealBook Conference. "If it hadn't been for the antitrust case... we were so close."

Gates' remarkable comments underline the adverse affect of antitrust lawsuits that technology companies often face nowadays. Also, this isn't the first time the philanthropist has expressed his disappointment towards the failure of Microsoft in the mobile operating system world -- despite the fact that the company dominates the desktop operating system market with its Windows platform.

Gates at an event hosted by early-stage venture capital firm Village Global earlier this year had communicated his sorrow for losing to Android. He had also acknowledged that the loss was $400 billion (roughly Rs. 28,27,800 crores).

Alongside blaming the antitrust case, Gates in his on-stage conversation with New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin divulged that Microsoft missed the opportunity to bring a Motorola phone with Windows Mobile.

"We were just three months too late on a release Motorola would have used on a phone, so yes it's a winner takes all game," highlighted Gates. "Now, nobody here has ever heard of Windows Mobile, but oh well. That's a few hundred billion here or there."

Gates didn't specify the model name of the Motorola handset he's referring to in the conversation. However, it could be a handset in Motorola's Droid series that had pushed Android success initially and made the game tougher for Windows Mobile.

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