Microsoft Corp aims to boost growth and win market share by introducing premium versions of its flagship Office and Windows products for high-end corporate use, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday.
Ballmer, who is into his fifth year as CEO, also told Microsoft's annual analysts' meeting that the world's largest software maker was gunning to take a bigger share of tech sector profits from its closest technology peers.
"I am very bullish about our prospects for growth," Ballmer said at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters.
"I believe in it, I think, more than you do," he said.
Despite buying back more than $8 billion worth of its own stock in its last fiscal year, Microsoft has seen its share price fall more than 10 percent in the past 12 months. The stock ended trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at $25.75.
Microsoft also aims to gain even more market share, particularly in the lucrative market for networked server computers, this year, Ballmer said.
"We have plans in the next generation for something even higher-end in Office that we call Office Premium," Ballmer said, adding that Microsoft was also working on a premium version of its Windows product.
Microsoft is betting that the next version, Windows Vista - formerly code-named Longhorn - will drive a new wave of personal computer upgrades once it is launched in the second half of 2006.
Microsoft is also working on a new version of Office, currently code-named "Office 12" that will launch in same time frame.
The premium editions of the upgrades would be joined by other editions for home users, Tablet PCs and Media Center entertainment PCs. Out of a group of 25 tech peers, including International Business Machines Corp, Google Inc, Yahoo Inc, Intel Corp and Dell Inc, Ballmer said Microsoft captured 23 percent of combined operating profits for the group of companies in the latest fiscal year, up from 18 percent in the prior period.
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