Microsoft Corp will buy Perceptive Pixel Inc, a six-year-old developer of large touchscreen displays whose customers include cable network CNN, chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Microsoft also said it plans to launch the latest version of its flagship Windows operating system in October, which Ballmer painted as the most important launch for the Redmond, Washington-based company since Windows 95 almost two decades earlier.<\/p>\n
“This is an epic year,” Ballmer told more than 16,000 business partners at a conference in Toronto. “It’s a year of unparalleled opportunity.”<\/p>\n
The next 12 months are seen as critical for the software behemoth, which has prepared a multi-pronged assault on the dominance of Apple Inc and Google Inc in the crucial mobile computing space.<\/p>\n
The company is placing several major bets over that period: its new Windows 8 operating system, on track for a late October launch; its first “Surface” tablets; a new version of Office; and revamped phone software.<\/p>\n
“Not only will every major product enter a new wave, but by the end of the year we will know if Microsoft’s Windows 8 bet, which folds tablets and PCs together, will be a boom or bust for the company,” said IDC analyst Al Hilwa.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said it will be sending Windows 8 to its hardware partners in the first week of August and it will be available more broadly by the end of October.<\/p>\n
“This will be the biggest product and services launch year in our company’s history, creating massive opportunities for our partners to grow their businesses,” Ballmer said in a statement released alongside its annual Worldwide Partner Conference.<\/p>\n
Perceptive buy<\/strong><\/p>\n Microsoft, which recently agreed to buy online social network Yammer Inc for $1.2 billion in cash, did not disclose the value of its planned acquisition of Perceptive Pixel.<\/p>\n Perceptive Pixel was founded in 2006 and shipped its first multi-touch workstations and large wall displays in 2007, according to its website where it boasted of “transforming the way CNN covered the historic 2008 U.S. Presidential election.”<\/p>\n Its founder and chief technology officer, Jeff Han, took to the stage at the conference to show off the wall-sized screen, pinching and zooming on maps, marking up content with a stylus, and swiping between Windows 8 applications.<\/p>\n Microsoft executives also showed off a test device running Windows RT – which runs on the same ARM Holdings Plc designed chips that power most tablet computers – using a Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm Inc, and said it had agreements with a range of other chipmakers including Texas Instruments Inc and Nvidia Corp.<\/p>\n Microsoft shares were 0.8 percent lower at $29.93 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq.<\/p>\n Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n Microsoft starts off financial year a little sour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Microsoft writes off $6.2 billion from \u201cworthless\u201d acquisition<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Microsoft unhappy with Motorola settlement offer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Motorola infringed on Microsoft texting patents \u2013 court<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Patent-infringing Motorola phones barred from U.S.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n