Microsoft Has No Plan B For Mobile, Says CFO

Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein has revealed that the company has “no plan B” for its mobile strategy, and that it will work with partners in order to expand its market share.

Speaking at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, Klein suggested that Microsoft was not disheartened by its apparent lack of success, adding that it would focus on execution of its current plan, rather than devise an alternative strategy.

“It’s less ‘Plan B’ than how you execute on the current plan,” Klein is quoted as saying. “We aim to evolve this generation of Windows to make sure we have the right set of experiences at the right price points for all customers.”

Microsoft mobile strategy

The latest version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8, was released last October and has made strong gains in countries like the UK and Italy, but still trails far behind iOS and Android in overall market share.

Windows 8, also released last year, was pitched as the first version of the OS to work equally well on both PCs and tablets. In an effort to encourage take up of the software, Microsoft has released two versions of its own tablet, the Microsoft Surface. However the Windows RT version has sold fewer than one million units while the Windows 8 Pro version has received mixed reviews.

The company angered many of its partners by releasing a Windows RT version of the Microsoft Surface, with many scaling back their tablet plans as a result, but Klein stopped short of suggesting that it was preparing to enter the smaller tablet market in which Apple, Google and Amazon are all major players.

Klein said the company wanted to get Windows and Windows Phone 8 on as many all-in-one PCs, tablets and smartphones as possible and would be working with its hardware partners to ensure this. Microsoft recently lent $2 billion to Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake in their buyout of Dell corporation, a move which Klein said was designed to support the PC ecosystem.

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