It’s not something I talk about much, but I’ve actually met Bill Gates. He’s a bit shorter in real life and had a lot of bodyguards following him around at the time. We spoke about the Microsoft Smartphone because, way back when, Microsoft was actually pretty successful at this whole smartphone thing.
When the iPhone came out though, well, it was like trying to perform a U-turn in the Titanic. Microsoft had such a big market share in the business sector (via Pocket PC’s) and popularity in the consumer market with their Smartphones. They saw the relatively expensive iPhone as a toy that would only sell in small numbers, and heck – nobody would ever use one of those in the business world.
Oh, how things change.
Finally, years later, after rebooting the Microsoft mobile operating system several times, when that ship had turned; it was pushing against a torrent of iPhone and now Android handsets. The tide was firmly against Microsoft, no matter how many billions were sunk into the project.
So, it’s with no great surprise that Bill Gates himself has finally switched to an Android handset. The Microsoft co-founder told Fox News Sunday that..
Recently, I actually did switch to an Android phone.
He did, though, state that there’s a lot of Microsoft apps on his phone. I’ll admit, these are actually pretty good and this is an area where Microsoft are doing well.
The actual model of Android wasn’t revealed, and Mr Gates stated that he doesn’t have an iPhone as a second device either.