Microsoft, for decades an iconic software company, now sees hardware as an indispensable part of its future.At Microsoft’s recent shareholders’ meeting, Ballmer made several comments indicating he now believes that breakthrough innovation leading to superior products and performance can be achieved by tightly coupling hardware and software development from the ground up—a concept Oracle refers to as “engineered systems.”From an informationweek.com article by Paul McDougall headlined Ballmer: Hardware Key to Microsoft’s Future:“And, not that we don’t have good hardware partners, but sometimes getting the innovation right across the seam of hardware