Ballmer Says Microsoft Planning More Devices and Hardware

On the eve of Microsoft’s big Windows 8 and Surface announcements, company CEO Steve Ballmer sat down with the BBC and stated that Microsoft would indeed be making more hardware and devices in the future.

This jibes with earlier reports that Microsoft would be focusing more on hardware and services and that it may actually have a handset prototype in the lab already.

If Ballmer's presentation at the Windows 8 press event was any indication, Microsoft is tenaciously invading several market segments under his leadership. “We have committed ourselves on a path where we will do whatever is required from both a hardware and a software innovation perspective and the cloud innovation perspective in order to propel the vision that we have,” he told the BBC.


This is a development that the PC and mobile phone industry will be watching closely. Microsoft rocked the boat when it announced that it was creating its own tablet, the Surface, and its OEM hardware partners had mixed reactions. If Microsoft indeed ends up with its own handset, two things are all but certain: It will be an interesting addition to the Windows Phone 8 market, and it will make OEMs (such as Nokia, which has gone all in on Windows Phone) anxious.