Online advertising will carry on expanding significantly for the next 4-5 years.

This will be particularly in emerging markets like Latin America, Turkey and Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Darren Huston, corporate vice president, global consumer and online for Microsoft said that there was still no date for the launch of its tablet computers.

These are aimed at rivaling Apple Inc's iPad.

On the other hand, they are still working with Hewlett-Packard and other PC makers on new types of tablets.

Previously, Microsoft India stated that it expects to have about half of the new personal computers sold in India over the next 1 year to have the newly launched Windows 7 operating system.

Over the next 12 months they expect hope to have at least half of the new PCs (sold) operating on Windows 7.

The new Microsoft operating system was launched late last month whereas until Friday due to some issues with the Customs, it was not available in India.

Meanwhile, Microsoft launched 'Online Services' in India in order to allow its small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprise customers to access e-mail and conferencing solutions through Internet.

Microsoft, however, would charge as low as $2 per user a month for the services and has also partnered HCL Infosystems, Infosys and Wipro to market and offer value-added services around the Microsoft Online Services.

On the other hand, as part of its effort to realign business activities, Microsoft will cut hundreds of jobs globally while the layoffs are likely to be across different locations and businesses.

In January, it had announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs while at that time, Microsoft stated that it would cut up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT.

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.