That Bill Gates’s departure from his full-time role at Microsoft at the end of this month will seem almost a non-event is a tribute to a meticulously planned management transition. Gates has been working his way out of a job for two years in preparation for a new life giving mountains of cash away, rather than making it. He will remain non-executive chairman, but without the deep immersion in the tech world that has made his insight legendary it is questionable how much he will contribute to the company’s future.

The Microsoft he leaves behind is in a far messier transition. It has some of the best assets in the computing industry and an enviable position straddling PCs and servers, with a foothold in games consoles, mobile phones and internet services. Yet its handling of the shift from a computing world centred on PCs to one revolving around the internet has provided ammunition for the doubters.