Microsoft boss, who will leave the company next year, acknowledged having missed the turn of smartphones was "the thing he regretted most."
The head of Microsoft Steve Ballmer , who is leaving the group , acknowledged Thursday that his biggest regret was to have missed the turn of the mobile , but for him the computer giant has not yet admitting defeat in this area.
"Virtually no market share"
"I wish there was a period in the early 2000s when we were so focused on what we had to do with Windows that we have not been able to redeploy talent to a new device called the smartphone. This is the thing I regret the most, "Ballmer said during a conference call with analysts. "It would have been better for Windows and our success in other forms" of products, has he added.
Market of smartphones and tablets are now dominated by Apple rivals (with the iPhone and iPad) and Google (many manufacturers use the Android software). Microsoft itself has "virtually no market share" in mobile devices, Ballmer conceded, but felt that the group had suddenly "growth opportunities."
For phones , it relies on the recently announced acquisition of mobile phones Nokia Finnish group , with which he was already working to produce smartphones running under Windows, the Lumia.
In tablets , the Surface launched last year has not wowed the audience. Microsoft has had to significantly lower prices , which resulted in a charge of nearly a billion dollars in its latest quarterly results. A new generation of these devices , however, must be presented next Monday.
No details on the successor to Ballmer
Beyond mobile devices, Microsoft, according to Ballmer, significant opportunities available in the services of cloud computing , online subscriptions for example its office suite Office or the search engine Bing .
Ballmer has not yet buried the PC , despite the crisis in that product, which Microsoft is associated, but is challenged by the tablet. "We must work to ensure that the PC is the device of preference for people when they are trying to be productive," he has said.
Microsoft also said at the conference how his recent internal reorganization would affect the presentation of its financial results. He did not, however, elaborate on the ongoing search for a successor to Mr. Ballmer.
