There has been a shift of consumers accessing the internet via web to mobile devices. This mobile shift benefitted Facebook and Apple. However, for Microsoft it was a different story.

Microsoft's core Windows franchise was hurt by the shift to mobile devices. This was despite the fact that its Windows 8 operating system was built for mobile and other devices. In addition, the Surface RT tablet was a big flop. The company's overproduction of the tablet led it to writedown US$900 million as an "inventory adjustment". This limited its profits to US$4.97 billion.

The result was a decrease of 11% in its shares. This caused investors, consumers, and other observers to worry about its future in a post-PC era.

"Since the competitive tablet industry has already established products such as Apple's iPad and Google's Android tablets, Windows 8 faces strong headwinds as it tries to increase market penetration," research firm Trefis said in a note.

"Microsoft has a long way to go to be a successful player in the pure mobile sector," Gerry Purdy of MobileTrax said.