Bill Gates Reveals His Biggest Mistake Was Not Beating Google's Android

Bill Gates has revealed that Microsoft losing to Google's Android was "one of the greatest mistakes of all time." Gates made the revelation while speaking at an event hosted by a venture capital firm, reports TechCrunch.

"You know, in the software world, in particular for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So, you know, the greatest mistake ever is the whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is, [meaning] Android is the standard non-Apple phone form platform (sic). That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win," Gates told TechCrunch.

This wasn't completely Gates' fault, as he stepped down as the company's CEO back in 2000. However, he continued to be a chairman and chief software architect for more than 10 years. He then left all these roles to continue his philanthropic work.

"It really is winner take all. If you're there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you're on your way to complete doom. There's room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and what's that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G (Google) to company M (Microsoft)," Gates added.

The CEO of Microsoft at that times was Steve Ballmer, who highly criticized the iPhone for its hefty price. Many of the company's mobile partnership including Nokia failed during that time.

"And it's amazing to me, having made one of the greatest mistakes of all time - and there were this antitrust lawsuit and various things that, you know, our other assets, Windows, Office, are still very strong. So we are a leading company. If we got that one right, we would be the company. But oh well."

Still, it's pretty evident that Bill Gates regrets that Microsoft failed to conquer the mobile market.