Bill Gates discusses Microsoft and their mobile sector

In an interview with CBS, Bill Gates talks to Charlie Rose about his life, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and more interestingly Microsoft. He says that the way that Microsoft went about the mobile industry didn't allow them to get the leadership they needed. He says that they should have entered the market earlier in order to get the lead on cell phones and that "it's clearly a mistake".

Bill Gates says he and CEO Steve Ballmer are "2 of the most self-critical people". He says that "There were a lot of amazing things that Steve's leadership got done with the company in the last year. Windows 8 is a key to the future, the Surface computer, Bing – people are seeing as a better search product, Xbox". Gates says that due to the self-critical nature of both him and Ballmer, they feel like they could better.

Bill Gates also discusses sleep and that he needs at least 7 hours of sleep, or else his "IQ begins to drop". He wishes that he could be like other people who can thrive off only 4 hours of sleep. He is a night person and he "gets very excited about something that's going wrong or right". He would sometimes stay up until 2:00 A.M., which would prove to be difficult if he had an appointment early in the morning.

Alongside the talks of Microsoft, Bill Gates says that he wants to introduce a new high school course that brings together Science and History. He is also working on innovations in cheap and clean energy. While they weren't able to get the lead on the mobile market, it seems that Microsoft is doing well in catching-up in the industry. Their Windows 8 mobile devices are starting to get traction in the industry, and hopefully with the release of Windows Blue, they'll be seen as a major competitor.

[via CBS]