Microsoft missed mobile dominance by ‘tiny’ margin: Gates

Washington: Microsoft missed its chance to be the dominant firm in mobile technology because it was “distracted” during a lengthy antitrust battle with US authorities, company co-founder Bill Gates said Monday.

Gates, speaking at a forum in Washington, said Microsoft would be even more valuable if it had won the battle over operating software for mobile devices against Google and its Android platform.

“We were in the field of doing operating systems for personal computers. We knew that mobile phones would be very popular,” Gates said during an on-stage interview sponsored by the Economic Club of Washington.