Like so much from Gates over the decades -- maybe making his fortune through scumbaggery more than anything compels him to lie, lie, lie -- this is bull. Mr. Softee beat Apple into the smartphone business with their Palm rip off. Smartphones didn't become something for the masses until Eric Schmidt, while on Apple's Board, ripped off the design of the iPhone. Genius stroke #2 by Schmidt was making the Android OS free and essentially open source, neither of which Microsoft under Gates could even conceive doing.
Its not like Microsoft isn't still in with a chance. They made a great hedge bet by buying Xamarin in 2016. And Xamarin is today the largest cross platform development tool out there.
If Microsoft launches Windows Mobile again, most Xamarin adopters will have an edge, because their app will be ready for Windows with a simple recompile. And that also means, many more developers would be jumping ship to Xamarin, to avoid the heart ache and complexity of working on 3 platforms.
But for that to happen, Microsoft has to change its DNA. The way they price Xamarin, has hindered its growth. Commerical usage of any decent scale, requires a paid professional Visual Studio license. And that doesn't give you things like the Profiler, and other critical tools - which need Enterprise. At a time when all other competing platforms are free.
Microsoft will wait till Google'e Flutter gains critical mass and momentum, and then realize what they need to do - by which time it will be too late! Exactly what happened with Office 365 and Google Docs!
There was a time when Microsoft knew the "Developer Developer Deverloper" mantra best - but clearly they are still living in the previous century!
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Mr. Softee beat Apple into the smartphone business with their Palm rip off. Smartphones didn't become something for the masses until Eric Schmidt, while on Apple's Board, ripped off the design of the iPhone. Genius stroke #2 by Schmidt was making the Android OS free and essentially open source, neither of which Microsoft under Gates could even conceive doing.
If Microsoft launches Windows Mobile again, most Xamarin adopters will have an edge, because their app will be ready for Windows with a simple recompile. And that also means, many more developers would be jumping ship to Xamarin, to avoid the heart ache and complexity of working on 3 platforms.
But for that to happen, Microsoft has to change its DNA. The way they price Xamarin, has hindered its growth. Commerical usage of any decent scale, requires a paid professional Visual Studio license. And that doesn't give you things like the Profiler, and other critical tools - which need Enterprise. At a time when all other competing platforms are free.
Microsoft will wait till Google'e Flutter gains critical mass and momentum, and then realize what they need to do - by which time it will be too late! Exactly what happened with Office 365 and Google Docs!
There was a time when Microsoft knew the "Developer Developer Deverloper" mantra best - but clearly they are still living in the previous century!