Ballmer on Windows Phone 7 – there is no contingency plan for failure

Microsoft has concluded their investor conference last week, and made it very clear they are coming out fighting to win back marker share in the important smartphone and tablet market.

"We’re coming full guns," said Ballmer at the company’s annual presentation to analysts at its Redmond, Washington headquarters. "We’re going to sell like crazy; we’re going to market like crazy."

"We’ve got to push right now with our hardware partners," said Ballmer. "They (the new devices) will be shipping as soon as they are ready. It’s job No. 1 urgency around here. Nobody’s sleeping at the switch."

When asked what would happen if the new Windows phone software was not a success, or a repetition of the ill-fated Windows Vista, Ballmer answered: "It won’t be," adding that there was no contingency plan.

Read more about Microsoft’s tablet and smartphone strategy at Reuters here.