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Bill Gates has said that he thinks everyone would be using Windows Mobile right now and not Android if it weren't for his distractions and the antitrust investigation that his company got caught into.
"There's no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft, and we would have been more focused on creating the phone operating system and so instead of using Android today you would be using Windows Mobile," Gates claimed during his speech at The New York Times' DealBook Conference.
[...] Microsoft cofounder also revealed that the company was almost launching Windows Mobile on a Motorola handset but missed out on it by a few months, giving Android an unbeatable advantage. While there were a lot of factors, Gates says it's this 3-months delay that led to Android's supremacy and the downfall of any mobile efforts by Microsoft.
"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."
Related:
Nadella: Microsoft Isn't Killing Windows Phone and Will Go It Alone
Steve Balmer: Use Android to Save Windows Phone
Microsoft Breaks its Windows 10 Mobile Upgrade Promise
Microsoft Axes 2,850 More Windows Phone, Sales Staff
Windows Phone Dies, Aged 6
It's Been 5 Years Already, Let's Gawp at Microsoft and Nokia's Bloodbath
Microsoft is Embracing Android as the Mobile Version of Windows
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Saturday November 09 2019, @08:07AM (1 child)
early adopters (not trendy bandwagon types, but tech people) are not 'microsoft people' (they are barely android people, but "COMPUTER IN MY POCKET!!!")
trend-types like 'new and shiny', but aren't likely to want to have to 'learn' a new interface..
so... neither type of early adopter would every buy an ms (or Sailfish, or whatever) phone.
Poor Bill.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:19PM
Microsoft had early adopters. They tried Microsoft PocketPC in 2000. Then they tried Windows Mobile 2003. Then Windows Mobile 5. Then Windows Mobile 6. Then Windows Phone 7. Then Windows Phone 8. Then Windows Phone 10.
Each time, Microsoft announced something, sold it, and then dumped it and released something new with different features and new APIs that was largely not backwards compatible. Windows Mobile 6 apps didn't work on Windows Phone 7, etc... etc...
So the early adoption customers got burned, and more importantly the early adoption application vendors got burned too.
I hate Microsoft and I hate Bill Gates. But Windows conquered the desktop world due to a combination of dirty tricks and fanatical focus on backwards compatibility. Microsoft brought the dirty tricks to mobile, but dumped the backwards compatibility and that's what killed them. If Google dumped and restarted Android six times, it would have never gone anywhere either.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Coward, Anonymous on Saturday November 09 2019, @08:20AM
Props to the anti-trust investigators for helping a Microsoft competitor enter the market.
(Score: 5, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday November 09 2019, @08:36AM (13 children)
Ha, ha! Ha, ha ha! Multiple ha, has! If only we had not been criminals, we could have been a contender! Ha, HA, HA HA AHA, Ha!! Too funny! Zune!!!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @10:38AM (7 children)
Yes, I had the exact same thought. In a fair world, the way that Microsoft came to dominate the computing market would bring charges of crimes against humanity. It is sickening to see how successful he has been in whitewashing his reputation with his charity/PR schemes.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 09 2019, @02:56PM (6 children)
Keep that in mind when you visit most any museum. Carnegie-Melon? They felt guilty for exploiting people in their day, so they got into philanthropy to get right with God or something like that. Not much different from the Pharaoh, who were all real SOB's but wanted to be remembered as some kind of nice guy.
The poor man (or woman) who gives a sandwich to a hungry guy is far more praiseworthy than some asshole giving away money that he can't possibly spend in his lifetime.
Fuck Bill - he'll answer to God just as surely as any of us. You won't find me giving him any sympathy.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @06:47PM
You only have to be in with the right sky-daddy. My god doesn't care about small details such as how much money I give away or what day of the week I rest or even how I have sex.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday November 09 2019, @11:21PM
This is so true and so wise, I wish I could mod you +20 Insightful.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0x663EB663D1E7F223
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday November 10 2019, @07:34AM (3 children)
The Gate's foundation is pouring US$ 5 Billion into Africa.
And yet in the USA, where Billl made his fortune, met his wife, and where they and their children live, there are families and individuals who have no homes, or even basic shelter and have no guarantee that they will even get any food from day to day.
Isn't there some line in the Bible or one of those other "Holy" books everyone claims to follow about how "Charity starts at home"? If Billy boy doesn't believe in God then why the Hells is he trying to clean up his rep in the first place?
If B&M spent that money taking care of those people who are going hungry in their own country they actually get some respect from me, until then both of them can rot in the deepest pit of Hells for all I care.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:35AM (1 child)
He got that money uh... fair and square.
OK maybe not, but there are still better ways to attack the B&MG Foundation.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:50AM
Are there, really? I suppose that Bill and Melinda have lived so far inside of a gated community that they have never witnessed a hungry American? Or, an American with holes in his shoes? Or, an American with shabby clothes, headed for a job interview for yet another dead-end job that won't pay for a new wardrobe?
Despite the fact that America is one of, if not THE richest nations on earth, there is plenty of opportunity to be charitable at home. GP makes a valid point, IMO. If I were to load up my truck with all of the cash, in US twenty dollar bills, and drive around looking for worthy causes, I could empty the truck in pretty short order. Take your choice of cities, or small towns. You may (or may not) have to look a little harder out in rural America - that's debatable.
For clarity, "worthy causes" for me would be individuals with hard luck stories, not "not-for-profit" charities. Those "charities" that actually pass on 50% or more of the money they rake in are exceptions, rather than the rule.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @02:54PM
I would attack billionaires at a more fundamental level. I would argue the most noble, virtuous, valuable job any human can have is working as a doctor. The average American doctor - the best paid doctors in the world - would have to work 50,000 years and save every penny to become a billionaire. So no billionaire, anywhere, ever, truly earned their fortune. Nobody works 50,000 times as hard as a doctor, or is 50,000 times as smart as a doctor, or even is 224 times as smart and works 224 times as hard (224 * 224 = 50,176).
So the existence of billionaires represent a policy failure in society. They're the most successful thieves in history.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:56PM
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday November 09 2019, @06:11PM (3 children)
As a result of Android not coming into existence, Apple is allowed to complete its heavy water experiments and this enables them to be first in developing a smartphone without serious competition. This, together with switching to Intel processors, enables Apple to capture the world.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:55AM (2 children)
Heavy water experiments? Apple? Sorry, an internet search doesn't give me any hits that seem relevant to Apple.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:58PM (1 child)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Heavy_water [fandom.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:00PM
The joke is that we would not be running MS phones they had managed to keep us off Android :-)
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:18AM
It could be MS's established reputation for a slow buggy and clumsy mobile OS.
They actually did cram Windows on a Motorola phone. It's responsiveness was worse than glacial.
They even tried buying a cellphone manufacturer, since that was the only way they could get their crap crammed into a phone at all. But even Nokia's former reputation for high quality phones couldn't keep that abomination afloat. The fact is, it was still slow, still clunky, and the hardware was underwhelming.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:26AM
Microsoft had Windows Mobile before Android: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile [wikipedia.org]
The reason why Windows Mobile wasn't successful was because it was crap. Some versions didn't even do WiFi or DHCP properly[1].
Also as Apple has proven, whether you're first or not doesn't matter.
Even the newer ones are crap- I have one of the newer Windows Mobile phones at my desk, nobody wanted it, and it really is worse than Android (Google seems to be busy making Android worse and worse for me year after year though).
[1] Random examples:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mobiledevices/forum/all/how-to-connect-to-internet-through-wifi-a-problem/561f18a8-5f64-4359-957e-adb003229f1d [microsoft.com]
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mobiledevices/forum/wptips/windows-mobile-5-6-dhcp-error/95205f50-df31-4322-8bfc-69af03ab4ef9 [microsoft.com]
Feel free to google more if you don't believe me.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 09 2019, @10:29AM (9 children)
Wow, what loser things to say. Crying that Android is a better walled garden than WinCE and Windows Mobile, and trying to blame that on the government. You sound like a delusional Trump supporter.
But Bill, MS still isn't listening to the users. Many of us don't want the walls. You're still trying to bully us into accepting your view that walls are good. We find particularly irksome and insulting the patronizing attitude that you know better than us what's best for us, while you do things that are obviously against our interests.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:07PM (1 child)
Russian "collusion" DELUSION anyone? Scumbag TRAITORS (like you) are the delusional welfare sucking swine you are. What happened to you LOSERS on "russia, russia, russia" loser? You did what your kind ALWAYS DOES - lie and lose (because you are brain-dead welfare sucking SWINE)! What is it like knowing the entire planet laughs at your kind? You wasted millions in taxpayer money on that bullshit just like you waste our hard-earned money supporting your useless wasted life, welfare sucker loser you know you are.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:20PM
Hohohohoho truer words were never spoken! Welfare losers like the one you replied to want everything for 'FREE' impractical and impossible as it is and for what? Being lifelong losers who live in ghetto hovels miserably since they know they are complete wastes of life? Did the loser cure AIDS? No instead HIS KIND spreads it and slings drugs instead since they wasted their youth as wannabe 'gangstas' and 'crappas' (rappa on youtube) filth. I don't even need to state the obvious here but I do anyway to drive this set of facts home embarassing "bziptidoo" the fake name FAKE NEWS believing DELUSIONAL imbecile (uneducated wannabe delusional loser).
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:50PM (1 child)
Welfare sucker fakename, answer the question https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918215#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] instead of trying to hide it using multiple registered accounts. What's the matter? Your delusions won't allow you to tell us what happened in "russian collusion" welfare sucker? Go back to your welfare ghetto hovel and overdose on the heroin only a fool like you craves since you know you are truly a waste of life welfare sucker hahahahaha!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:07PM
Once again you demonstrate how simple it is to get the DELUSIONAL welfare suckers to STFU when you confront them with facts. Especially facts about their fakename waste of life loser selves, hahahaha!
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:18PM
Russian "collusion" DELUSION anyone? Scumbag TRAITORS (like you) are the delusional welfare sucking swine you are. What happened to you LOSERS on "russia, russia, russia" loser? You did what your kind ALWAYS DOES - lie and lose (because you are brain-dead welfare sucking SWINE)! What is it like knowing the entire planet laughs at your kind? You wasted millions in taxpayer money on that bullshit just like you waste our hard-earned money supporting your useless wasted life, welfare sucker loser you know you are. I see you had to try "HIDE" my shutting your junkie waste of life mouth earlier too https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918215#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] hohohohoho instead of answering my simple question. You are a delusional waste of life loser, fakename for your fake wasted so-called 'life'. Do us all a favor: Go get some of your Chinese pals' FENTANYL and overdose on it so we don't have to listen to your crap OR see you run like the cowardly failure you evidence yourself to be, ghetto fail loser you prove you are.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:24PM
bzipitidoo fakename needs more welfare and heroin https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918224#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] apparently. He can't even answer a simple question backed by facts his kind are nothing more than disgusting waste of life leeches sucking on welfare and heroin.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:00PM
How can you have your Windows, if you don't eat the Wall? All in all, you're just another prick with no wall!
(I think that's how the lyrics go, let's check with Bill.)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:52PM (1 child)
Doesn't run native Windows apps. Doesn't run exe's downloaded from the net. Doesn't have an app store. Can't wipe the drive for Linux because it's embedded in ROM.
It's secure from most viruses but other than that another piece of shit from M$.
I still have my Jornada 820 WinCE but can't even browse the net anymore because of a locked in IE 4 without java or flash.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @05:01AM
I still have a Casio Cassiopeia A11 with all the optional extras (powered dock, cardbus 14.4 modem, network card etc). It runs WinCE 2.0. Doesn't get a used much these days (ie. never). I don't even know if there are still ISP's out there that will let you connect through a dial-up modem.
(Score: 3, Touché) by SomeGuy on Saturday November 09 2019, @10:36AM (2 children)
Sure, sure. And if it hadn't been for Microsoft, everyone would be using IBM ThinkPhones running OS/2 Mobile.
Sorry, the main reason people use "smart" phones is so they don't have to have the perceived complexity and lock-in of a desktop computer. Any device with the Microsoft logo does not give that perception (despite the reality of how complex and locked in smart phones of any OS really are.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:03PM (1 child)
Huh? I thought the reason people used "smart phones" is because they are so portable. iPhone users, for instance, are pretty locked in. And, Android users aren't much less so. There are really only two choices, choice 1 locks you into one walled garden, choice 2 locks you into another garden with lower walls. My "desktop" is far less locked than either Apple or Android. But, it's sure not very portable!!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday November 09 2019, @07:31PM
I think SomeGuy is in error with his comment about lock-in; you're right, both iOS and Android users are locked-in to some degree, and don't seem to mind. I think he's right, however, about the complexity bit. Phones are generally simple to operate. They don't need regular virus updates and reboots. They don't have McAfee on them, slowing them down.
I think MS's reputation from their desktop OS was a big factor in why no one wanted their phones. How many office drones have PTSD after having to use Windows all day at work, especially after their IT department has loaded it down with all kinds of corporate crapware and McAfee? You wouldn't believe how long it takes me just to switch to my Outlook window and read my email; it's much faster for me to look at my GMail account on my phone! And that's in 2019; back in the early/mid 2000s, using Windows at work was a pretty lousy experience, with constant virus alerts (I regularly came to work to see posters on the door saying "warning! don't open this email!" because a new Outlook virus was going around), updates, reboots, etc. What kind of moron would want a phone that worked this poorly?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:35PM (5 children)
Why's "bzipitidoo" fakename welfare heroin junkie running from answering a simple question here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918224#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] ? His kinds sits around all day living off YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY spouting complete crap online but when confronted, his kind does what it always does: FAIL! Just like they failed in life in all things.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:42PM
I'm ok with welfare sucker junkies like bzipitidoo: They provide gigantic amusement when folks like you let fakename traitor failures like him show everyone just how completely stupid they are. You can't pay for this type of humor (well, in reality, those of you who actually earn their keep unlike junkie ghetto contaminated lifelong failures like bzipitidoo, do pay for HIS kind, unfortunately. At least we get to laugh at them. No small wonder why he hides behind his many fakenames online. George Soros PAYS for those losers to do what they always do - lose).
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @02:37PM
bzipitidoo admits he always fails hahahaha https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34489&page=1&cid=916679#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] and what does he do? Complain and play the 'blame game' (even though you know he is lying and doesn't have a job at all). When he is asked to provide proof to the contrary, you see him run, again as he did from a fair question here on "russian collusion: (fucking traitor scum always yell "Mo' welfare YO!")_. Hhehehehe. Have fun losing ANOTHER presidential election swine.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:05PM (2 children)
What are you on the fag wagon about?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)
Dear fakename welfare sucker liar "bzipitido" I'll answer for him on your simple question: He is laughing at you running from a question on "russia" https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34553&page=1&cid=918224#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] and your blamegame admitted fail (like your entire wasted life bzipitido) https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34489&page=1&cid=916679#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] which you admit yet another fail in your wasted life fakename. Prove you even have a job welfare sucker. Only job you have is spouting more traitor "leftist" bullshit online and when you are confronted you run. No denying it. You are, a loser.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:45PM
So - how many "spam" moderations do you think it will take to block your IP address?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:01PM (1 child)
Blame some one else for your own failings.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:30PM
Like nullo bzipitidoo does? He was asked a fair question, repeatedly ran from it and downmoderated it to hide it several dozen times already https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34489&page=1&cid=916679#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] and also complains about a FAILED PROJECT (his life, not a real job) blaming it on others as defective product LEFTIST NULLOS (lmao) do.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:27PM
bzipitidoo admits he always fails hahahaha https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=34489&page=1&cid=916679#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] & what does he do? Complain playing a 'blame game', as does all his waste of life kind, when THEY are @ fault from their defective birth, hehehe (even though you know he is lying & has no job). When he is asked to provide proof to the contrary, you see him run, again as he did from a fair question here on "russian collusion: (fucking traitor scum always yell "Mo' welfare YO!")_. Hhehehehe. Have fun losing ANOTHER presidential election swine. Instead of answering a fair question in the link I posted he runs. Facts do that to NULLOS (look it up, it's him and all his kind, fakenames galore losers and defective wastes of life) every time. Utterly priceless and hilarious. You can't PAY for better humor (but then, all taxpaying working folks do unfortunately, for these defect wastes of life).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @05:02PM
There is this thing in econ where the total tax revenue collected tends to stay the same regardless of how you scale the tax system. The market adjusts on its own to the same total recovered taxes, at the expense of GDP if it isn't handled correctly.
There are factors related to market transparency that will change things way more than shifting tax burden. Most of that is on SCOTUS. You can vote for whatever brand of the uniparty you want, it doesn't change the fact that SCOTUS and most of the federal court system have utterly abandoned article 1 and the bill of rights. Congress can pass whatever laws they want because SCOTUS can be relied on to ensure that the constitutionality of criminal systems of governance (the modern American fascism) will never be publicly debated.
Though I find it weird to watch Bill in chill mode. I tried to look up some stuff from the 90's, and I couldn't find any. I remember this guy used to say batshit things all the time. Apparently with enough money you can erase history. Funny that.
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Saturday November 09 2019, @06:32PM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Nuke on Saturday November 09 2019, @09:07PM
No I fucking wouldn't. What's happening here - is Gates sinking into senile delusions in his old age?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday November 09 2019, @11:26PM (2 children)
So it had nothing to do with Android being better designed or Google giving it away for free? Nothing to do with MS dropping the ball over and over?
It was all to do with the "antitrust" farce that MS basically bought itself out of and kept on going same old same old...
WHAT A DOUCHE. He was a douche to start with, is still a douche and will die a douche.
Why do people still pay attention to him?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:26AM (1 child)
Because he's a billionaire, and the muggles think he is computer god.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @03:39PM
AVADA KEDAVRA
AAHHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHH HE'S KILLED ME
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:06AM
Bill, I feel so sorry for you and MS that I bought you a gift. [thisiswhyimbroke.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 10 2019, @06:18PM
"There's no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft,"
not bad enough, you shit weasel. be glad you weren't drawn and quartered on a live stream.