Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces new strategy

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the maker of Windows programs must exploit the opportunity to combine hardware and software as it challenges Apple Inc.’s iPad with the Surface tablet computer.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, won’t cede that market to competitors even as partners build the "lion’s share" of devices using Windows in the next five years, Ballmer said yesterday during an address at the Churchill Club speaker series in Santa Clara, California. The company recognizes "there’s an innovation opportunity" by collaborating across hardware and software, he said.

Microsoft is undertaking an overhaul of its product line meant to keep it relevant in the post-PC era. The company dominated the technology landscape during the heyday of the personal computer in the 1990s and much of the last decade, yet has been eclipsed in influence by a resurgent Apple and the rise of mobile devices taking the place of PCs that run Microsoft’s flagship Windows operating system.

"We really reimagined Windows," he said at the on-stage discussion with Reid Hoffman, the chairman and co-founder of the online business network LinkedIn Corp. "The distinction between a PC and a tablet I think, at least in our ecosystem, completely goes away."