PC is not dead, but taking rebirth, says Microsoft's COO

Company to continue to invest across 5 technology mega trends including cloud computing

PC is not dead, nor is the PC market shrinking as people usually believe, says Brian Kevin Turner, the global chief operating officer of Microsoft Corporation. Instead, the whole PC market is taking a rebirth in a different form thus giving different user experience.

“People think that the PC is dead and the PC is shrinking as a market. We actually have a different point of view. We think the PC is not dead; it is taking rebirth and getting reformatted in the thousands of new devices types and new smart devices,” said Turner addressing an event organized by Microsoft in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Microsoft, which is in the process of transforming itself from a software company into a devices and services company will continue to play a key role in this transformation process. In its efforts in being part of the journey, Microsoft is moving its entire ecosystem to 'touch’, he added. The Windows 8 operating system which the company launched last year brings 'touch’ to all form factors starting from smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.

In the next few weeks, chip maker Intel is launching a new chip called, Haswell which has the ability to help the original equipment makers to come out with thin, light weight devices with long battery life. The company had recently announced that the first round of Haswell Core Processor will be unveiled on June 3.

Kevin said Microsoft, especially with Windows 8 'touch first OS’ will play a big role in the transformation happening in the personal computing space. “We think that it is also a great opportunity to bring devices to market at cheaper price points. You are going to see 140 different ultra-books from the market which are touch-enabled. We are very excited about it,” he added.

Microsoft, said Turner, has identified 'Touch’ as the fifth mega technology trend in the market place, after cloud, social, mobility and big data. “The ability to bring touch experience to the cloud, to social, mobility as well as big data is something we are working on. This is a very unique opportunity as we also believe all these trends are very inter-related,” he added.

On its way to position itself as a services company, Microsoft is also betting big on cloud computing. Kevin said 90% of the companies are embracing cloud today, and almost every company is going for a hybrid cloud model.

Microsoft has announced that 80% of its new applications in 2013 will be deployed in cloud. Some of the company’s offerings that are on the cloud are Office 365, Yammer, Skype (for productivity and collaboration); SQL (database platform) and Dynamics CRM and ERP (business applications).

Turner said within the new few years, cloud services are largely going to make client servers as a dominant model for application and services. “We see this trend as very significant. If a company does not have a cloud strategy today, we think it will be very difficult for it to maintain a long-term competitive advantage,” he added.

For 2013, Microsoft has announced an R&D budget of $10.1 billion which will be primarily spend towards expanding its expertise in the five technology mega trends the company has identified. In 2012, the company spent over $9.6 billion in R&D.