Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft (pictured), stepped down from the company’s board, leaving his replacement Satya Nadella to wrestle with the company’s transition to a more mobile and cloud-focused strategy.

Following months of speculation, Microsoft announced that its new CEO is former enterprise and cloud boss Satya Nadella, with mobile firmly at the top of his agenda.

With PC growth on the wane, and demand booming for smartphones and tablets, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has announced a restructuring of the software giant designed to get more of its products used on devices other than PCs.

Microsoft has dropped its strongest hint yet that it may one day produce its own mobile phones, with CEO Steve Ballmer using his annual letter to shareholders to outline “a new era” at the software giant.

Microsoft has appointed Terry Myerson, who previously oversaw the phone group’s engineering efforts, as its new Windows Phone Division President.

Microsoft executives revealed that the first Nokia handset running Windows Mobile will be unveiled next week, and talked up the company’s mobile OS compared to Google’s Android.

Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft delivers his keynote at Mobile World Congress 2011