Shutting Down Windows Phone Was a Mistake, Admits Microsoft CEO
Oct. 25, 2023Microsoft’s Windows Phones with Lumia branding were the talk of the town back in the day. At its peak, these Windows Phones were offering an up-and-coming alternative to Android & iOS phones. But today, Windows Phones are almost unheard of. As it turns out, even Microsoft’s CEO has some thoughts about Windows Phone and the company’s decision to leave them. Here is what the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, said in an interview regarding the company’s Windows phones.
Microsoft CEO Regrets Abandoning Windows Phones
In an interview withBusiness Insider, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, said a few words regarding the company’s past phone business. When asked about any “real strategic mistake or wrong decision,” the CEO answered:
“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. 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.“
Nadella refers to his decision towrite offthe company’s $7.6 billion acquisition of the Nokia Phone business. While it happened some time ago, it’s clear that the CEO had big ambitions for the future of Windows Phones. As he mentions, Microsoft wanted to innovate upon the computing ecosystem of tablets, phones, and PCs. It would have been amazing to see what today’s Lumia smartphones could look like if their adoption never declined.
However, that is not to say the company hasn’t made progress in other areas. Microsoft is accelerating the artificial intelligence industry significantly with several products. First, there isWindows Copilot, which brings an AI-powered assistant to Windows 11. Powered byMicrosoft Bing, the company has come a long way.
Their cloud computing platform, Azure, grew considerably due to the generative AI products offered within the platform. Today, more than 18,000 organizations use Microsoft Azure OpenAI services (via:NY Times). They also have theMicrosoft Designer toolthat aims to bring the magic of professional photo-editing & powerful brand asset creation to the touch of your fingertips, all thanks to AI. Hence, despite the failure of Windows Phone, the company’s positioning in the AI industry is quite strong.
Highly passionate about technology. Major expertise in PC hardware, the VR industry, esports-centric gear, and other gadgets. In my spare time, I’m usually researching exciting hardware breakthroughs or playing competitive games.
