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Bill Gates says he switched to Android, perhaps a Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition? [Video]

In a recent interview with Fox News, Bill Gates revealed he has switched to an Android phone. It’s not clear what phone he used up to now, but it was likely to be a Windows Phone considering his widely-circulated statements several years ago about banning Apple products from his household.

“Recently I actually did switch to an Android phone with a lot of Microsoft software,” he said in an interview Sunday with Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

He went on, “But the competition in the software and IT space that Steve helped foster, it’s phenomenal. And Microsoft is a big part of that. It’s been a miraculous industry that he and I got to work in.”

It’s not clear what Android phone it is that Gates uses as his daily driver, but one could assume that it’s the Microsoft Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S8 that Microsoft launched this year.  That phone has long been available at Microsoft’s many retail stores and ships with lots of Microsoft software pre-loaded.

Gates’ choosing of the Android ecosystem seems to suit him well, considering Android essentially cloned the Microsoft model he helped create. Like the Windows OS that preceded it, Google made Android available for hardware makers to take and preload on their devices in a rush to get as many users as possible.

Apple, on the other hand, has for the most part been very closed-handed with its software, only allowing it — officially, at least — to run on its own hardware. These factors considered as well as the fact that Gates is just an overall geek who probably prefers a more open device he can tinker with, makes Android seem like the obvious choice.

You can watch the relevant part of the Fox News interview below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvvb4MHXfsk

 

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Avatar for Stephen Hall Stephen Hall

Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.


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