Microsoft is the world's third largest tech company behind Apple, Samsung

It is no real secret that the world of technology has changed quite a lot over the last decade. Desktop PCs, candy-bar phones and a nascent web have been replaced with a vast digital culture, smartphones and a plethora of different computing options to suit every taste.

Given this seismic shift, some things were bound to change; now it is Apple that leads the way in the tech world, followed by Samsung. The fruity firm is now the most valuable company in recorded history as reported by Forbes, while Samsung nips at its heels. Google is making in-roads to every area of technology imaginable, while the likes of Uber and Facebook bring up the rear-guard, eager to take the place of any who falter.

In this mix sits Microsoft, third in the company of true giants. With Windows 10 on the way, hundreds of millions of Windows devices in use every day and a resurgent cloud sector; and yet everything is not well at Redmond. As Android and iOS dominate its mobile offerings, and as more and more consumers abandon the traditional computer set-up it is difficult to see how much success Microsoft will enjoy as it attempts to find a new direction for itself.

Under Satya Nadella, the firm has been seen as taking a bold new direction, moving away from the business model that sustained it so well throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and yet many see this as over due. Perhaps the surest sign yet of the death of the ‘old’ Microsoft is the news that Windows 10 will be the ‘last’ version of Windows. That is to say, the operating system, which with the company is synonymous, will become something more akin to Android or iOS, receiving iterations rather than revolutions.

Yet, with Samsung going through something of a rocky period, and with other players experiencing troubles also, there is still hope yet that Microsoft might one day reclaim the top spot.

Do you think Microsoft has what it takes to get back on top? Let us know what you think in the comments below.