When asked to name a mistake or a wrong decision he made in the past, Nadella said that exiting the mobile phone business was one of the most difficult decisions he made. He thinks that the company could have made it work if it had tried harder.
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." - Satya Nadella
Despite Windows Phone having many ardent fans, it just couldn't attract as many users as iOS and Android. Microsoft set the ambitious goal of beating both iOS and Android - a Herculean task - but it didn't make much of an effort to bring popular apps to the platform. In the end, it was a loss not just for Microsoft but for mobile users around the world, who were deprived of a third player who was actually great at its craft.
We are not sure if Microsoft has learned from its mistakes though. The Surface Duo, the company's Android-based dual-screen folding phone, is increasingly looking like a failed project. In spite of not having a folding screen likeOutdated specs, bugs, and abysmal software support have anecdotally made even some of the most die-hard Microsoft fans sour on the company.