Speaking of smartphones, to date the choice is only between iOS (iPhone) e Android. The two operating systems from Apple and Google respectively dominate the market, but until a few years ago there was also a third player on the playing field. Of course, the adoption rate was significantly lower than that of the two rivals, but – indeed – “it was there”. We are obviously talking about Windows Phone, which however Microsoft has no longer officially supported since January 2020. Was it a wise decision? Here you are what the current CEO of the Redmond company thinks.
Satya Nadella he took over from Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, and as such had to make a decision about the mobile market. Well, in an interview given to Business InsiderNadella admitted that Microsoft’s exit from this segment it wasn’t handled in the best way.
Wrong decision or strategy error? «The decision that I think so many are talking about – which is one of the most difficult I’ve made since becoming CEO – was Microsoft’s exit from the “mobile phone” business.», explains Nadella. «With hindsight, I believe we could have managed our position better, perhaps reinventing the IT category between PCs, tablets and smartphones».
Microsoft and the difficult relationship with the market mobile: the backgrounds of Gates and Ballmer
Nadella is therefore the third Microsoft CEO to have admitted errors in the field mobile of the company. Bill Gates (co-founder and former CEO) said his “biggest mistake ever” was to having lost the game with Android. Also Steve Ballmer has been slow to respond to the Android and iOS (iPhone) threat. He said of Apple’s smartphone that it was too expensive and that business customers didn’t like it because it didn’t have a keyboard.
Ballmer himself said in 2013 that he regretted not having paid attention to the smartphone issue: «I’m sorry there was a time in the early 2000s when we were so focused on Windows [Vista] that we were not able to concentrate part of our forces on that new device that was the smartphone. This is the thing I regret the most».
Microsoft has not abandoned the mobile market, its applications (including the Office suite) are in fact available for both iOS and Android. Of course, a proprietary operating system is a very different thing.
