With more than a Billion active users across the globe, Google’s Android OS outnumbers the rivals with ease. The mobile platform accounts for almost 85% of the global smartphone market share so it’s not really a big thing to add a single man to its user base. But, what if the man is the world’s wealthiest guy and the founder of one of the world’s largest influential organization. Weird isn’t it?
So, Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates has reportedly owned an Android smartphone as a replacement to his own Windows phone. Windows-powered phones managed to round up only 0.3 percent of the market, and among that minuscule number of people was, of course, Bill Gates. However, in an interview with Fox News, Bill Gates revealed that this is no longer the case: he has officially ditched his Windows phone in favor of an Android-powered smartphone. While he never specified which Android phone he was using as a personal device, he did add that it has “a lot of Microsoft software.”
Microsoft were a bit slow in adopting the mobile platform as they failed to bring in their Windows OS into the smartphones. By the time they woke up, the market was completely swallowed in by the rivals Google and Apple. As a result, Windows in mobile had always been an underdog since its inception. Credits to the boring UI and lack of developer support. This left Gates with two options: Either Apple or Android.
Though Apple and Google are straight rivals for Microsoft, Apple which has a bitter taste of history with the company may have left Gates in a dilemma. Android is a slightly different story, however. While it is Google’s mobile OS, it’s used and modified by hardware partners without any charge, so unless he’s using a Pixel, it’s not such an apparent conflict of interest. It also offers a level of flexibility and customization that’s simply not available on Apple’s devices, which is one of the reasons why tech enthusiasts tend to stick with Android phones.
Going by the numbers in the US, he may well be using a Samsung flagship device. Samsung has had multiple partnerships with Microsoft, not just for its PC division and now-defunct Windows phones, but also for its Android-powered Galaxy series.
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Source: VentureBeat
