When it comes to the titans of the computing industry there is one name firmly at the top of any list and that is Bill Gates. Today the man is stepping away from his role at Microsoft to focus on his charity work.

Gates' incredible impact on the industry he fell in love with in its infancy cannot be understated. His MS DOS played a huge role in bringing the PC into every home, his Windows OS became synonymous with home computing and programmes like Instant Messenger, Internet Explorer, Word and Excel are still dominant in their specific areas.

And yet this success and Microsoft's occasionally heavy handed business tactics have served to make the company unpopular with the very community that first embraced it, and Gates' retirement coincides with perhaps the toughest period in the Redmond-based firm's history.

Vista

Vista has sold in the millions and yet it lacks the popularity that made XP such a roaring success. This week brought the news that long-term partner Intel won't be putting the flagship OS on its own company PCs and Microsoft's shift to promoting its successor Windows 7, while extending support for XP, hints at a company that knows it has fired a blank.

Equally, the high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful bid for Yahoo illustrates Microsoft's realisation that its web strategy is failing in the harsh light of industry leader Google. Ironically, Google's internet search and advertising hegemony is comparable with that of Windows in the OS market.

So Gates' exit is not whilst his company is on a high. Microsoft remains a fearsomely powerful force in computing, but is its empire on the wane? What is clear is that Gates' departure does rid Microsoft of its emperor and figure head.

It remains to be seen who can fill that vacuum – and if they can arrest Microsoft's slide.