Bill Gates

This is ridiculous. What users want is we have a good version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint that people can run on their iPads, and we've decided not to ship it to try and advantage Surface and other Windows 8 devices. Yes. The year later, we did ship it actually right after Satya became CEO. That was one of the first things he did.

This is ridiculous. What users want is we have a good version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint that people can run on their iPads, and we've decided not to ship it to try and advantage Surface and other Windows 8 devices. Yes. The year later, we did ship it actually right after Satya became CEO. That was one of the first things he did.

So ultimately that decision didn't happen that much later than it would have otherwise. And kind of an open question of whether it was a mistake. Like did Microsoft ever lose a dollar for deciding to hold office for iPad another year? Probably not.

So ultimately that decision didn't happen that much later than it would have otherwise. And kind of an open question of whether it was a mistake. Like did Microsoft ever lose a dollar for deciding to hold office for iPad another year? Probably not.

At the time, I held this belief we have stayed the Windows company for far too long and need to embrace users where they are. Now, with all this hindsight, I understand why you wouldn't make the decision when you feel like the iPad could be the end of you.

At the time, I held this belief we have stayed the Windows company for far too long and need to embrace users where they are. Now, with all this hindsight, I understand why you wouldn't make the decision when you feel like the iPad could be the end of you.

Why would we go all in on that now and put our finest products to advantage that thing when we don't know if that thing is going to kill us or not? So there's the big downside. There's not much upside to launching it. What, am I going to renew a few more enterprise agreements because of it? Probably not. Perhaps young Ben working at Microsoft at that period of time

Why would we go all in on that now and put our finest products to advantage that thing when we don't know if that thing is going to kill us or not? So there's the big downside. There's not much upside to launching it. What, am I going to renew a few more enterprise agreements because of it? Probably not. Perhaps young Ben working at Microsoft at that period of time

failed to understand how important it is to think like an incumbent when you are the incumbent. And this was a low upside to doing it right away, plenty of downsides to doing it right away, really no risk on sitting on it.

failed to understand how important it is to think like an incumbent when you are the incumbent. And this was a low upside to doing it right away, plenty of downsides to doing it right away, really no risk on sitting on it.

We have shifted from a devices and services company to a cloud-first, mobile-first company. I believe that was the message.

We have shifted from a devices and services company to a cloud-first, mobile-first company. I believe that was the message.

Yep.

Yep.

Who bought Nokia?

Who bought Nokia?

Yeah. In fact, it's not that they were giving away for free. They were willing to pay people to take it. I mean, if you think about it, I'm sure there was money that they spent on the Droid marketing campaign. I'm sure there was money that they paid to the carriers to pay to their salespeople to incentivize people to buy it versus the iPhone in stores.

Yeah. In fact, it's not that they were giving away for free. They were willing to pay people to take it. I mean, if you think about it, I'm sure there was money that they spent on the Droid marketing campaign. I'm sure there was money that they paid to the carriers to pay to their salespeople to incentivize people to buy it versus the iPhone in stores.

That was a common practice in the mobile industry. So I think less than free is actually the correct way to frame Android.

That was a common practice in the mobile industry. So I think less than free is actually the correct way to frame Android.