Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella goes on record to admit killing Windows phone, mobile was a mistake

Microsoft, under the leadership of its various CEOs, made significant mistakes in the mobile phone industry. The company’s co-founder Bill Gates once admitted that it was a big mistake to let Google’s Android beat them in the mobile market. The former CEO Steve Ballmer focused too much on their own mobile system and didn’t take Apple’s iPhone seriously enough. Now, the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, has gone on record to admit that writing off the company’s mobile phone business was a mistake.

In an interview given to Business Insider, the CEO talked about many things including the Activision Blizzard deal, his personal life, AI, open source and more. When asked about any kind of real strategic mistake or decision that he regrets, Nadella replied that it was the company’s exit of mobile phones soon after he became the CEO that he regrets. He wished that company could have found a better way to make it work.

“The decision I think a lot of people talk about – and one of the most difficult decisions I made when I became CEO —was our exit of what I’ll call the mobile phone as defined then. In retrospect, I think there could have been ways we could have made it work by perhaps reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones,” he replied.
Microsoft also gave up on their own Windows Phone and instead made phones that run on Google’s Android system. However, these phones haven’t been very successful, and it’s unclear what will happen to them in the future with no successor or software updates. The company over the past few years has changed it strategy to fit with the popular mobile system. It has been making apps for Android and iPhones, and they’re working closely with Samsung to have their Office apps on Samsung’s Android phones.