When Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft was behind in both mobile and cloud.

Judge Microsoft's position around February 2014, when Nadella became CEO, not with later knowledge. The claim has two parts: (a) Microsoft was behind in mobile, meaning its smartphone/mobile OS share or position trailed clear leaders such as Apple iOS and Google Android; (b) Microsoft was behind in cloud, meaning its public cloud infrastructure/platform business (Azure) trailed a clear leader such as Amazon Web Services in market share or revenue. True: contemporaneous market data or analyst assessments show Microsoft trailing the leaders in both mobile and cloud. Mostly true: both parts hold broadly, but one is more nuanced, for example Microsoft led in some cloud segments such as SaaS/Office 365 while trailing in infrastructure cloud. Mixed: only one of the two parts holds. Mostly false: Microsoft was not clearly behind in either area, but there was some real basis for the claim, such as trailing only in a narrow sub-segment. False: contemporaneous evidence shows Microsoft was leading or on par in both mobile and cloud in 2014.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Microsoft CEO to focus on mobile, cloud technology San Diego Union-Tribune (AP) · 4 February 2014

   “Microsoft and its new CEO are trying to catch rivals such as Apple, Google and Amazon, which are each building their own thriving ecosystems for mobile devices.”

2. E2 What Could Go Wrong For Satya Nadella? | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 4 February 2014

   “If Microsoft cedes ground to Amazon, or more precisely fails to grow its share of this market, it could harm its ability to promote its own software products, not to mention see a key new revenue source stagnate.”

3. E3 Mobile software statistics 2014 - mobiForge mobiForge · 6 January 2015

   “With 84.4% market share, Android was the world’s leading mobile OS in the third quarter of 2014. iOS came second capturing 11.7% market share, while Windows Phone ranked third, but with only 2.9% market share.”

Data cited by mobiForge [E4] shows Windows Phone trailing Android and iOS in Q3 2014, supporting the mobile part. No evidence item shows Microsoft's cloud position against Amazon Web Services: [E1] refers to ecosystems for mobile devices and [E3] does not name the market, so the cloud part, which the verdict requires, is not settled.