Microsoft kicked off its Build developer conference in San Francisco yesterday and CEO Steve Ballmer seemed to take pride in the fact that it was just 8 months since the last one. While there wasnt a touch of humor in his presentation, one couldnt help sense the irony. Windows 8 the biggest rewrite of the companys flagship operating system in more than a decade and the platform to uniform everything from smartphones to PCs was in need of some serious fixes and Microsoft MSFT +0.75% had to talk to developers now. Things couldnt wait the full year; the 8th Windows needs helps 8 months in. Despite a bewildering array of fixes and changes, though, the new improved Windows 8.1 (due later this year) wont fix an ailing PC market and wont get Microsoft off its single-digit share in smartphones or tablets anytime soon.
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