Microsoft takes fight to Google at Worldwide Partner Conference 2011

Microsoft executives were in confident mood during the firm's annual five-day Worldwide Partner Conference, with key products and themes such as Office 365, cloud computing, Windows 7 and the smartphone market at the forefront of discussions.

V3.co.uk has rounded up all the best bits from WPC 2011 in Los Angeles, including Microsoft's claim that Office 365 has sold five million licences and will "kick Google's butt", as well as the firm's plan to offer cut-price smartphones in 2012.

The always excitable Microsoft chief executive, Steve Ballmer, kicked off WPC by highlighting Microsoft's successes and discussing the firm's mobile strategy.

"Bing is up in market share, Windows Server has 76 per cent market share [and] with Office 365, basically the other guys are yet to really show up," he told the 15,000 delegates.

"We are selling a lot of Windows and we have a lot of competition, but we are driving hard and in the past year 350 million PCs have been sold."

Ballmer also urged customers and partners to move to the cloud, claiming that it is the most important transition on the planet.

"The cloud is a disrupter for all of us. Disruption is scary but we are all in on the cloud 100 per cent and we need partners who are coming with us," he said.

"It doesn't mean that our business has fully transitioned [to cloud technology] in the last 12 months, but we are all in."

However, Ballmer admitted that Microsoft has some ground to make up in the smartphone market, and claimed that the Windows Phone platform needs time to become successful.

Microsoft's share of the mobile market this year has gone from "very small to very small", Ballmer joked, but he maintained that the firm is "all in when it comes to mobile devices".

"A year ago, Microsoft had no Windows Phone. In the past year, we have sold millions of phones and, when we survey our users, nine out of 10 would recommend them to a friend," he said.

Andy Lees, president of the Windows Phone Division, suggested that Microsoft will make an aggressive push into the mobile space to gain market share, especially as handset prices continue to tumble.

"A year ago all smartphones cost $400 when they left their manufacturers. Today they are down to $200 and next year a smartphone that can run Windows Phone 7 will be down to $100 or $150," he said during his keynote.