Charlie Rose interviewed Bill Gates for CBS This Morning and the Microsoft founder had an admission about Microsoft's mobile strategy. When pressed about negative press and missing cell phones, Mr. Gates said the company did not miss cell phones, but the mobile strategy was clearly a "mistake." Asked for the reason why they missed it, Gates said the answer was too complicated. He did not criticize CEO Steve Ballmer, but it was obvious he was not happy that Microsoft is not a leader in the smartphone space.
Microsoft was actually dominant in the early smartphones with their Windows Mobile platform. Those phones were all over Asia and Microsoft was doing a decent job. Steve Jobs and Apple decided to upend the market however, and Microsoft was not able to keep up.
The interview covers a lot of ground and is worth the watch.