Microsoft’s Useful Life May Be Near Its End

Steve Ballmer’s announcement last week of his retirement from Microsoft Corp. after 13 years at the helm leaves some puzzling questions for his successor -- about Microsoft’s epic decline, its uncertain future and the ultimate purpose of a public company. Resolving them may well prove impossible. And that’s OK.

Under Ballmer, who succeeded Bill Gates as chief executive officer in 2000, Microsoft failed to anticipate or adequately respond to almost every technological innovation that came along, from Web search to music to social networking to mobile phones to tablet computers. Its core products -- the Windows operating system and the Office suite of applications -- continued to rack up big profits. Yet bureaucratic complexity deepened, top talent defected, and the corporate culture resisted change.