Steve Ballmer would "re-do" last decade at Microsoft

Former Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer has admitted he would like to re-do his last decade in charge of the software giant, after admitting the vendor missed the boat on mobile computing.

Ballmer made the comments during an address to the Sad Business School in Oxford, which marked his first public appearance since bowing out of Microsoft last month.

"We would have a stronger position in the phone market today if I could re-do, for example, the last 10 years," he told attendees.

Microsoft has been considered something of a laggard in the mobile market, as its Windows Phone devices have failed to gain the same kind of traction as competing devices from Apple and Samsung over the past decade.

However, Ballmer said his former firm's decision to splash the cash on phone manufacturer Nokia was an important move for Microsoft's future.

The event also saw Ballmer question the logic behind last month's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp by social networking giant Facebook.

"With that asset ever be worth anything? Will those 450 million people ever generate enough revenue? Reasonable people [Mark] Zuckerberg [Facebook CEO] believes so, and no reason to doubt it," said Ballmer.

During his time on stage, Ballmer also expressed regret that, during his tenure, Microsoft didn't realise its combined hardware and software vision sooner.

"The thing I regret is that we didn't put the hardware and software together soon enough...It was almost magical the way the PC came about with an operating system from us and hardware from IBM," he said.

"There was a little bit of magic, too, for Android and Samsung coming together. But, if you really want to bring a vision to market, it is helpful to be able to conceive and deliver the hardware and software."

Ballmer's comments come at a time of big change for Microsoft, as new CEO Satya Nadella has wasted no time in shaking up the vendor's senior management team.

This week has seen Microsoft vice president of advertising and strategy Mark Penn promoted to the position of chief strategy officer, while CFO Tami Reller and former Skype CEO Tony Bates are both reported to be leaving the company.