Microsoft: Is this Steve Ballmer's last throw of the dice?
...Its last great bet was on Windows 8, a radical reinvention of its iconic operating system, designed to allow people to flip easily between tablets and PCs.
It was a disaster, both in the timing and the execution. Microsoft had started courting a tablet audience too late, and simultaneously alienated its longstanding customers who were still wedded to the old Windows style.
...But the question that is still plaguing many analysts was why has Microsoft not done more, and why is Mr Ballmer still in place after its catalogue of recent failures. He famously has Mr Gates’ backing, not to mention a huge tranche of Microsoft shares, But even so, it is hard to think of other technology chiefs that would have ridden out the disasters he has.
“I can’t see any other company in the industry where a chief executive would have been given as much time and as many new chances,” says a source. “He hasn’t made the mobile phone work. He hasn’t made Windows 8 work as well as it was supposed to.”
It might be a surprise that he has remained in position this far, but one thing seems clear: while this is unlikely to be Microsoft’s last rodeo, it is Mr Ballmer’s last big roll of the dice.
