TOKYO -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer on Monday touted the company's plans to target the market for server software allowing voice conversations and video conferencing over Internet networks.

"We are going to enter the voice over IP market (in) the beginning of next year," Ballmer said at a Microsoft conference in Tokyo. Voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, involves technologies allowing computer users to make telephone calls with their Internet connections.

While Microsoft has previously released various software with VoIP functionality, Ballmer said it would now be incorporated across the company's operating system, desktop applications and server software. He added that it would be unified with e-mail, video and instant messaging.

Ballmer also vowed that there would never be another long delay in the release of new versions of its flagship Windows operating system software like the one Microsoft has experienced with Vista.

"We will never have a five-year gap between releases again," Ballmer said.

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