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Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst, said: “Some of the technical folks may even be better suited than Gates to lead the company into the next generation of computing. Some would say that maybe he had too much power. Some would say that Microsoft hasn’t failed enough, hasn’t gone out on enough limbs and been as innovative as they could have been.”

Even under Mr Gates’s own defined measures of success, he cannot be particularly comfortable with where the company stands in some markets. In 1994 Mr Gates took part in a Harvard Business School case study, when he said that the key to Microsoft’s strategy was to dominate markets. “We look for businesses where we can garner large market shares, not just 30 or 35 per cent.” In internet advertising, a critical market, Google – the world’s biggest internet company – remains dominant.

Although the future of Microsoft is uncertain, its past – imagined, shaped, and nurtured by only two men, Mr Gates and Paul Allen, his co-founder – is phenomenal. Microsoft is worth $258 billion with annual sales of $60 billion. There are more than one billion copies of the Windows operating system worldwide, which made Mr Gates the world’s wealthiest man for 13 years until last year.

The corporate world may miss watching a pullover-wearing, bespectacled geek engaging in public feuds with Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, and Thomas Jackson, a federal judge, who accused Mr Gates of having “a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company – an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success”. They may also miss the extraordinary vision of a man who for years has been encouraging us to consider what the future of television looks like, how we will read in the future and how to get all handwriting and reading done through a computer.

Mr Gates intends to spend one day a week in the Microsoft office, which may suggest that company founders never really retire, even if they say they do.

Four driving forces behind the computer empire

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer, 52
Mr Ballmer joined the company in 1980 when Bill Gates, a Harvard University classmate, talked him into dropping out of Stanford University business school to join Microsoft. Since taking over from Mr Gates as the company's chief executive in 2000, Mr Ballmer has been the main decision maker.

Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect, 52
He replaced Mr Gates as the company's top software guru in 2006. He joined the company as chief technical officer the previous year when Microsoft bought his software company, Groove Networks. White-haired and softly spoken, Mr Ozzie is responsible for mapping out the company's “software plus services” strategy.

Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, 59
Mr Mundie manages the $7billion research and development budget, believed to be the largest R&D budget of any technology firm. Mr Mundie's Microsoft career began in 1992 in the consumer platforms division, where he was responsible for developing software for games consoles.

Kevin Johnson, President, Platforms & Services Division, 47
Mr Johnson, who joined Microsoft in 1992, has the dual task of protecting the company's most important business, Windows, and developing its future cash generator, online advertising. He was one of the main drivers behind Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo! to aid its push for advertising.

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