Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said the computer giant had to reinvent itself to avoid being "old and tired" as his company struggles to keep up in the mobile devices sector.

"We're finding ourselves having to start up again," Ballmer said at a conference in Rome where he announced Italy had become the first country in which Microsoft phones were outselling iPhones.

"Unless you're constantly inventing something new, you're old and tired. Today we're having to remake ourselves," Ballmer told his audience.

Referring to the success of Microsoft against rival Apple's iPhone in Italy, he quipped: "I don't know how long it's going to last."

Ballmer was a classmate and friend of Bill Gates from their days at Harvard University in the 1970s.

He took over from Gates in 2000 but earlier this year said he will step down by August 2014.

When Ballmer took over, Microsoft was the undisputed tech sector leader, and the world's largest company in market value. But in recent years it has struggled as consumers began to move from desktop and laptop PCs to mobile devices.

Taiwan Acer CEO resigns over 3Q widening loss
Taipei (AFP) Nov 05, 2013 - J. T. Wang resigned as chairman and CEO of Acer Tuesday as the Taiwanese personal computer maker reported a net third-quarter loss of Tw$13.1 billion ($442.2 million).

Wang's resignation has been approved by the board of directors but he will remain in the chairmanship until the end of his tenure next June, the company said in a statement.

"Acer encountered many complicated and harsh challenges in the past few years. With the consecutive poor financial results, it is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to pave the way for a new era," Wang said.

His position as CEO will be filled by president Jim Wong from January, but the company did not say who will become chairman after June.

The company saw its net loss rise from $11.39 million in the second quarter.

Third-quarter revenues dropped 11.8 percent year-on-year to Tw$92.2 billion ($3.1 billion).

The company said the third-quarter loss resulted from a rise in inventory levels and from one-time compensation payments related to longstanding litigation.

Shipments of Acer's notebooks, tablet PCs and Chromebooks are expected to fall 10 percent in Q4 compared to the third quarter, the company said.

In the face of the tough outlook, Acer has set up a business restructuring group led by founder Stan Shih and co-founder George Huang.

It envisages a seven percent cut in the number of global employees next year.