PC not dead, taking rebirth: Microsoft COO

Windows 8 operating system brings "touch" to all form factors - smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs

Brian Kevin Turner, global chief operating officer of Microsoft Corporation, today said contrary to popular belief, the personal computer (PC) was merely seeing a rebirth.

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

Microsoft, which is transforming itself from a software company into a devices and services company, would continue to play a key role in the transformation. In its efforts, the company was moving its entire ecosystem to ‘touch’, Turner said. The Windows 8 operating system, which the company launched last year, brings ‘touch’ to all form factors — smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.

Turner said Microsoft, especially with the Windows 8 ‘touch first OS’, would play a major role in the transformation in the PC space. “We think it is a great opportunity to bring devices to the market at cheaper price points. You are going to see 140 different ultra-books from the market that are touch-enabled. We are very excited about it,” he added.

Microsoft, Turner said, had 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 and big data is something we are working on. This is a very unique opportunity, as we believe all these trends are inter-related,” he added.

On its way to positioning itself as a services company, Microsoft is betting big on cloud computing. Turner said today, 90 per cent of the companies were embracing the cloud.

Microsoft has announced this year, 80 per cent of its new applications would be deployed on the cloud. Turner said within the new few years, cloud services would largely make client servers 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 would be very difficult for it to maintain a long-term competitive advantage,” he said.

For this year, Microsoft has announced a research and development budget of $10.1 billion, and this would be primarily aimed at expanding its expertise in the five technology mega trends.