Bill Gates Says His Biggest Mistake Was Letting Google Launch Android With No Challenge

Bill Gates is an icon in the tech world. Having co-founded and chaired Microsoft for years, he's considered one of the most successful technology moguls alive.

And yet, even he is capable of grave mistakes, one of which still bugs him he admitted recently.

Images courtesy: Reuters

At an event hosted by venture capital firm Village Global Gates was discussing what it's like to found a new company, and the sort of tough decisions you can expect to make along the way in order to ensure its survival and success.

When asked about his views on work-life balance, Gates said he "didn't really believe in vacations" during the early years of Microsoft. He did eventually come to love his weekend time off, but he insists that the time when a company is first starting out is the most crucial. "I have a fairly hardcore view that there should be a very large sacrifice made during those early years, particularly if you're trying to do some engineering things that you have to get the feasibility for," he said.

And yet, even on the job all the time, it's possible to make bad decisions that could sink your company. For Gates, one of those he's still kicking himself about is allowing Google to develop Android largely free of competition.

"You know, in the software world, in particular for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets," he said. "So, you know, the greatest mistake ever is the whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is. Android is the standard non-Apple phone form platform."

"That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win."

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed it off. It was their view that iPhones wouldn't appeal to business customers because it didn't have a keyboard, instead requiring people to type on glass. "We have our strategy. We have great Windows Mobile devices," he said at the time.

On the other hand, Google had bought Android in 2005, which at the time was an operating system meant for digital cameras and not smartphones. And while while Microsoft laughed off the iPhone, Andy Rubin's team at Google completely changed tactics and modified Android to work for touchscreen phones.

Steve Jobs holding the first iPhone in 2007

It was 2010 by the time Microsoft changed course and launched its first Windows Phone in 2010, also for touchscreens. And though it was an incredibly good OS and really smooth, they'd already lost the app market. Developers had been making apps for iOS and Android for years. There was really no incentive for them to make apps for another non-Apple platform when an already successful one was available.

"If you're there with half as many apps or 90% as many apps, you're on your way to complete doom," Gates said at the event. "There's room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and what's that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M. Yeah, the turn of events hurts Gates so much he can't even say the company's name when talking about Android.

"We are a leading company," he said. "If we got that one right, we would be the company. But oh well."