Smartphone: Satya Nadella says one of his biggest ‘mistakes’ was Microsoft exiting the smartphone business

Microsoft has a rather chequered history when it comes to mobile phones. The tech giant tried its hand multiple times at succeeding in the mobile business but burnt its fingers badly. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called it his “greatest mistake” and now current CEO Satya Nadella has voiced similar feelings. In an interview with Business Insider, Nadella said that one of the most difficult decisions he made was to exit from the mobile business. “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.”
Nadella said that the company might have been able to do better. “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 said.

More misses than hits

As we mentioned, Microsoft’s tryst with mobile phones didn’t pan out as it expected. In 2010, Microsoft officially launched Windows Phone, a visually distinctive and innovative mobile platform. The tiled interface and integration with Microsoft services showed promise. However, it struggled to gain traction in a market which was being captivated first by the iPhone and then Android. dominated by iOS and Android. The app ecosystem was a major drawback, with a lack of popular apps compared to its competitors.
That didn’t deter Microsoft and it made an ambitious move to acquire Nokia‘s smartphone division, hoping to leverage Nokia’s hardware expertise. This move resulted in the Lumia series of smartphones. While they received critical acclaim for their design and camera technology, by then the stronghold of iPhone and Android was too strong. they couldn’t break the duopoly of iOS and Android.
In 2017, Microsoft officially killed the Windows phone but the company still has a minor presence in the market. Microsoft introduced the Surface Duo, a dual-screen Android device. While innovative in design, it faced challenges due to software issues and a high price point.