Microsoft headed in for ‘significant shift’ in its business

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the software company’s future may see it take a page out of Apple’s book, reports Reuters. In his annual letter to shareholders, Ballmer indicated that hardware production and online services are forthcoming from the company.

Last year in this letter I said that over time, the full value of our software will be seen and felt in how people use devices and services at work and in their personal lives. This is a significant shift, both in what we do and how we see ourselves — as a devices and services company. It impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses. The work we have accomplished in the past year and the roadmap in front of us brings this to life.

Ballmer makes it clear that Microsoft will continue to partner with loyal manufacturers to provide businesses and consumers with devices and hardware but emphasises that the company will increasingly be getting into the hardware space as well.

The CEO uses the Xbox and the Surface tablet to illustrate a blueprint for hardware production for the company as products that were built for specific reasons.

“There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface,” writes Ballmer.

Bill Rigby of Reuters argues that this could be seen as mimicking Microsoft’s long time rival and sometime partner Apple. Who have enjoyed great success with the iPhone and iPad ranges that demonstrates “tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison”.

Ballmer points out five “big” opportunities for the company’s future:

• Developing new form factors that have increasingly natural ways to use them including touch, gestures and speech.
• Making technology more intuitive and able to act on our behalf instead of at our command with machine learning.
• Building and running cloud services in ways that unleash incredible new experiences and opportunities for businesses and individuals.
• Firmly establishing one platform, Windows, across the PC, tablet, phone, server and cloud to drive a thriving ecosystem of developers, unify the cross-device user experience, and increase agility when bringing new advancements to market.
• Delivering new scenarios with life-changing improvements in how people learn, work, play and interact with one another.

Clearly the company wants to make sure that the competitors, consumers and manufacturing partners understand that it is much more than just a software company. Chances are we will be seeing a Microsoft phone soon.