Android co-founder blames Bill Gates for Microsoft’s $400 billion mobile failure, here’s why

Bill Gates

Android co-founder Rich Miner has blamed Bill Gates for Microsoft’s failure to dominate the mobile market. This comes after Gates admitted in a recent interview that losing to Android was one of Microsoft’s “greatest mistakes,” costing the company an estimated $400 billion in market value. Miner claimed Gates himself played a pivotal role in the downfall.

Responding to X (formerly Twitter), Miner wrote, “I literally helped create Android to prevent Microsoft from controlling the phone the way they did the PC—stifling innovation. So it’s always funny for me to hear Gates whine about losing mobile to Android.”

Miner, who worked closely with both sides of the mobile ecosystem, revealed his early concerns about Microsoft’s monopolistic tendencies. While working on the first Windows Mobile phone, the SPV, launched by Orange in 2002, Miner worried about Microsoft potentially dominating the mobile market as it had done with PCs.

“I wanted something more open. So, sorry Bill, you’re more responsible for losing the $400B than you realise,” Miner wrote. His comments suggest that Android was conceived not just as a product, but as a countermeasure to prevent Microsoft from controlling the mobile landscape.

During an interview with Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz, Gates acknowledged that missing the chance to dominate the smartphone platform was one of Microsoft’s biggest errors. “The greatest mistake of all time is the mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is,” Gates said. He estimated that this misstep cost the company roughly $400 billion, a figure that Google’s Android ultimately captured.

The timing of Microsoft’s market entry proved to be a critical factor in its failure. Apple launched the iPhone in June 2007, revolutionising the smartphone industry. Google followed with Android in September 2008, positioning itself as the primary alternative to Apple. Meanwhile, Microsoft did not launch Windows Phone 7 until October 2010—three years after the iPhone and two years after Android.

This delay allowed Apple and Android to capture a combined 99.9% share of the mobile operating system market, leaving Microsoft unable to recover. While Android grew into an open, customizable platform embraced by manufacturers worldwide, Microsoft struggled to gain traction, eventually discontinuing its Windows Phone platform.