Steve Ballmer gave a spirited defense of the Microsoft’s strategy and the future of its Windows operating system, following an assertion from Steve Jobs earlier that personal computers that run it are in permanent decline.
“The PC as we know it will continue to morph,” Mr Ballmer said during an on-stage interview. Some will have a keyboard, some won’t have a keyboard.”
Mr Ballmer, who also conceded that Microsoft had “missed a cycle” on mobile phones, sought to broaden the definition of a PC to include tablets.
“To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” he said. “We have our hammer [with Windows],” while Apple had its own hammer with the iPhone operating system that it was expanding to support the iPad.
In fact, he argued that Apple’s push for that operating system meant that its own Mac computer would fade away.
Mr Ballmer said he was disappointed that his company’s software was only the fifth most popular for smartphones, CNN is reporting.
