3 ms·

Yea he blamed it on antitrust lawsuit and said that Microsoft lost $400bn because of missed mobile OS opportunity or in another words because Android beat Micro

Yea he blamed it on antitrust lawsuit and said that Microsoft lost $400bn because of missed mobile OS opportunity or in another words because Android beat Microsoft and its Windows Mobile/Phone.

ineedasername 5y ago
I suppose the antitrust stuff might simply have been too big of a distraction to allow enough focus on early mobile platforms like the Pocket PC, which could have been a much bigger competitor to Palm than it actually was. But that still really would be the antitrust suits themselves since 1) MS got themselves into that mess in the first place and 2) Bill Gates shouldn't have let it distract him so much from potentially vital projects. 3) employee accounts of the internal politics at the time pretty much meant that most new products were doomed to fail from the outset if management on the Windows teams thought they were even the least bit of threat to them.
- mrkramer 5y ago
  Maybe antitrust distracted them but not so much to miss huge mobile OS opportunity. They were destined to make mobile OS because they had so much knowledge about operating systems and they had so much resources to do it. I also read somewhere that Gates wasn't excited about mobile phones and thought that PCs will rule the world forever. On the other hand he was excited about Xbox that's why they invested much more effort and resources into gaming hardware than in mobile phone. Gates even admitted he messed it up and lost $400bn with mobile operating system. https://youtu.be/W5g4sPi1wd4?t=709 https://youtu.be/W5g4sPi1wd4?t=709
  - 45ure 5y ago
    >On the other hand he was excited about Xbox that's why they invested much more effort and resources into gaming hardware than in mobile phone. There is a different story/side to this statement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25576859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25576859

Yea he blamed it on antitrust lawsuit and said that Microsoft lost $400bn because of missed mobile OS opportunity or in another words because Android beat Microsoft and its Windows Mobile/Phone.

ineedasername 5y ago

I suppose the antitrust stuff might simply have been too big of a distraction to allow enough focus on early mobile platforms like the Pocket PC, which could have been a much bigger competitor to Palm than it actually was. But that still really would be the antitrust suits themselves since 1) MS got themselves into that mess in the first place and 2) Bill Gates shouldn't have let it distract him so much from potentially vital projects. 3) employee accounts of the internal politics at the time pretty much meant that most new products were doomed to fail from the outset if management on the Windows teams thought they were even the least bit of threat to them.

mrkramer 5y ago
Maybe antitrust distracted them but not so much to miss huge mobile OS opportunity. They were destined to make mobile OS because they had so much knowledge about operating systems and they had so much resources to do it. I also read somewhere that Gates wasn't excited about mobile phones and thought that PCs will rule the world forever. On the other hand he was excited about Xbox that's why they invested much more effort and resources into gaming hardware than in mobile phone. Gates even admitted he messed it up and lost $400bn with mobile operating system. https://youtu.be/W5g4sPi1wd4?t=709 https://youtu.be/W5g4sPi1wd4?t=709
- 45ure 5y ago
  >On the other hand he was excited about Xbox that's why they invested much more effort and resources into gaming hardware than in mobile phone. There is a different story/side to this statement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25576859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25576859