"We are in a post-PC world," says ex-Microsoft exec

Ex-Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie has admitted the world is now living in a "post-PC world", but admitted the PC hasn't outlived its usefulness as yet.

His remarks came just after Apple had announced the next-generation iPad in San Francisco last night.

"People argue about 'are we in a post-PC world?'. Why are we arguing? Of course we are in a post-PC world," Ozzie, who took over as Microsoft's tech visionary after Bill Gates left, said at a technology conference, reported by Retuers.

"That doesn't mean the PC dies, that just means that the scenarios that we use them in, we stop referring to them as PCs, we refer to them as other things."

Ozzie's remarks were his first made in public since he stepped down at Microsoft in 2010. Since then, the company has been preparing the release of Windows 8. Ozzie said how the new OS performs could affect its future.

"If Windows 8 shifts in a form that people really want to buy the product, the company will have a great future," he said. "In any industry, if people look at their own needs, and look at the products and say, 'I understand why I had it then, and I want something different', they will not have as good a future. It's too soon to tell."