Overnight in New York, Microsoft unveiled the dramatic overhaul of its ubiquitous Windows operating system.It will go on sale today, fused into more than 1000 PCs and other devices.
If it flops, the failure will reinforce perceptions that Microsoft is falling behind competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon as its stranglehold on personal computers becomes less relevant in an era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
If Mr Ballmer is right, Windows 8 will prove that the world's largest software maker still has the technological chops and marketing muscle to shape the future of computing.
To get it right, the operating system went through 1.24 billion hours of public testing in 190 different countries. For serious people there is always the iPad option and iPad 4 cases and iPad 4 covers are available at CaseBuddy.