Microsoft News Tracker

EU fines Microsoft $733M for browser choice lapse

David Hunter — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:00:50 +0000

As we suggested last October, forgetting to offer a browser choice on Windows 7 SP1 turned out to be an expensive mistake for Microsoft:

The European Union Commission has fined Microsoft Corp. €561 million ($733 million) for breaking the terms of an earlier agreement to offer users a choice of internet browser.

The penalty is a first for Brussels — no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before.

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The commission’s top regulator, Joaquin Almunia, said at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium Wednesday that negotiated settlements are vital for enforcement to be carried out quickly. But he warned that the whole point would be undermined if companies then don’t abide by the terms of the settlement.

"They must do what they committed to do, or face the consequences," he said.

Almunia added that the large fine took into account the size and length of time the company violated the terms of its agreement, as well as the need to defer other companies from backsliding on their promises to competition authorities. He said the fine was less than it might have been because Microsoft had co-operated with the investigation.

Quite a profitable racket they have there.

Dell Warns Microsoft of Windows RT Brand Confusion

David Hunter — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:01:42 +0000

Microsoft urged to ditch Windows brand by Dell:

A top Dell executive warned Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer not to call its new tablet operating system “Windows RT” because the operating system wasn’t compatible with other versions of Windows and the name would only lead to widespread confusion.

Speaking to analysts at the Dell World conference in Austin last week, Dell’s vice-chairman and president of its PC business, Jeffrey Clarke, said he told Mr Ballmer the “Windows” brand was meant to signify that an operating system was compatible with Windows applications. As Windows RT couldn’t run Windows applications, it should be renamed, he said.

Mr Ballmer had replied that the Windows brand was too important a franchise to not be used with Windows RT, Mr Clarke said.

Had Microsoft listened to Dell, it could have avoided one of the major criticisms of its new operating system: that Windows RT looks so much like Windows 8 it’s too easy for a consumer to mistakenly buy a Windows RT device, not realising it’s not a regular Windows device.

Instead, Microsoft has reportedly had to offer relaxed return policies for its own “Surface with Windows RT” tablet, specifically for customers who got the tablet home only to discover their favourite Windows applications wouldn’t run on it.

They could always have called it Windows Mobile. Oops, that’s been used. Maybe just something more distinctive than "RT" would do? How about Windows Zune?

Actually, I would worry more about consumers buying a PC with Windows 8 and not realizing it isn’t a regular Windows device.

Steven Sinofsky out as Microsoft Windows head honcho

David Hunter — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:00:32 +0000

Breaking: Windows Head Steven Sinofsky to Leave Microsoft

Windows unit president Steven Sinofsky is leaving the company, effective immediately, AllThingsD has confirmed.

The move comes less than a month after Sinofsky presided over the launch of Windows 8 and Microsoft’s Surface tablet–products seen as key to the future if the PC software pioneer is to retain its position amid a market increasingly dominated by phones and tablets.

Sources have said the move came amid growing tension between Sinofsky and other top executives. Sinofsky, though seen as highly talented, was viewed at the top levels as not the kind of team player that the company was looking for.

Sinofsky has been widely reputed to have an abrasive personality for years, so one really has to wonder at the proximate cause of his departure. Still, team player or not, Sinofsky has to get credit for the Microsoft recovery from the Vista debacle with Windows 7.

The official press release is even more opaque as expected, but here’s the new leadership:

Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft retiring Messenger in 2013 and moving users to Skype

David Hunter — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:16:27 +0000

While titled "Talk to your Messenger Contacts on Skype" this blog post by Tony Bates (President, Skype division, Microsoft) is more than interoperability – Messenger is being retired in 1Q2013:

We’ve got good news to share! Skype and Messenger are coming together. Millions of Messenger users will be able to reach their Messenger friends on Skype. By updating to Skype, Messenger users can instant message and video call their Messenger friends.

This effort started with the release of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows a few weeks ago, which allows you to sign into Skype using a Microsoft account. Now Messenger users just need to update to the latest version of Skype, sign in using a Microsoft account, and their Messenger contacts will be there.

Our goal remains to deliver the best communications experience for everyone, everywhere. We want to focus our efforts on making things simpler for our users while continuously improving the overall experience. We will retire Messenger in all countries worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 (with the exception of mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available).

One of the perils of a large company is too many overlapping products so this seems like a wise move since Skype is bigger and has the momentum while Messenger is declining, but getting 100 million plus Messenger users to convert should be exciting.

David Pogue does Windows 8

David Hunter — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 04:43:13 +0000

David Pogue at the New York Times: Windows, Revamped and Split in 2:

I mean the two different worlds within Windows 8 alone, one designed primarily for touch screens, the other for mouse and keyboard. Individually, they are excellent — but you can’t use them individually. Microsoft has combined them into a superimposed, muddled mishmash called Windows 8, which goes on sale Friday at prices ranging from $15 to $40, depending on the offer and version.

You can easily imagine how Microsoft got here. “PC sales have slowed,” some executive must have said. “This is a new age of touch screens! We need a fresh approach, a new Windows. Something bold, fluid and finger-friendly.”

“Well, hold on,” someone must have countered. “We can’t forget the 600 million regular mouse-driven PCs. We also need to update Windows 7 for them!”

And then things went terribly wrong.

“Hey, I know!” somebody piped in. “Let’s combine those two Windows versions into one. One OS for all machines. Everybody’s happy!”

Whoops.

Hey, what could go wrong?

Unfortunately, in Windows 8, you can’t live exclusively in one world or the other.

Even if all your programs live in TileWorld, you’ll still have to use Desktop Windows to work with files or disks, connect to networked folders or open the Control Panel. And even if all of your programs live in Desktop Windows, your PC still starts up in TileWorld, and you still have to use TileWorld to perform tasks like searching and address-book lookups.

The free program Pokki helps a lot. It restores the Start menu to the desktop, and can even take you straight there at start-up.

Even so, two worlds means insane, productivity-killing schizophrenia. The Windows 8 learning curve resembles Mount Everest.

When users have to rely on someone else’s free program to make your UI work for them, you have a problem. Pokki isn’t the only one who noticed this either. PC makers like Lenovo and Samsung have their own Start menu programs as do other 3rd party software vendors.

European Union spots some spare change in Microsoft’s pocket

David Hunter — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:32:30 +0000

Microsoft Faces Large EU Fine

Microsoft Corp. is facing the prospect of a fresh, hefty fine by the European Union after the U.S. software giant failed to meet an earlier promise to offer users a choice of different Web browsers.

The European Commission on Wednesday filed a formal complaint against Microsoft for not following through on a commitment to offer its users alternatives to its own Internet Explorer Web browser on a recent version of its Windows program.

The Redmond, Wash., company had agreed to the measure three years ago and, if proven guilty, could face a maximum fine of as much as 10% of its total annual revenue, or $7.4 billion. Analysts, however, say it would be less.

There’s less and then there’s a lot less. I would offer the suggestion that one never stand between a bureaucrat and some loot.

During a news conference in Brussels, the EU’s antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia underlined the gravity of the offense and signaled his intention to use the case as a deterrent to other firms. This is the first time a company is being investigated for breaching its commitments.

"This is a very serious message not to infringe the commitments that had been agreed," Mr. Almunia said."Companies should be deterred from any temptations to renege on their commitments or even neglect their duties," he said.

In a statement, Microsoft said it "sincerely apologized" and reiterated that the mistake was a technical glitch on its Windows 7 version, known as Service Pack 1.

It’s going to be an expensive mistake.

Microsoft acquires marketing automation software vendor MarketingPilot

David Hunter — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:23:06 +0000

Microsoft has announced the acquisition of MarketingPilot for integration with its Dynamics CRM offerings:

MarketingPilot provides Integrated Marketing Management solutions that allow organizations to better understand their customers, manage and streamline marketing operations and create automated and measurable multi-channel marketing campaigns. This acquisition is a very exciting step forward for us, and will accelerate our ability to better meet the needs of CMO’s through rich business intelligence, and better enable marketers to successfully plan, execute, monitor, and optimize customer interactions across digital, social and traditional channels, and measure ROI.

If you find that rather content-free, try the Marketing Automation Software Guide:

MarketingPilot is a marketing resource management (MRM) and marketing automation solution used by mid-sized organizations. The system’s robust offering includes tools to help marketers with marketing workflow, planning, campaign management, digital asset management, and budgeting. In Gartner’s 2009 Magic Quadrant, MarketingPilot was ranked as the dominant mid-market vendor for marketing resource management software.

MarketingPilot is focused primarily on mid-market organizations in North America. It typically is not used by enterprises above $100M in annual revenue or 500 employees. The Standard edition has features to help marketers capture and assign sales leads, track products and inventory, and execute and measure targeted campaigns. The Professional and Unlimited packages offer more robust marketing automation and resource management functionality for lead nurturing, media buying and planning, and performance measurement.

More by following the link and yes, MarketingPilot uses Microsoft server software technology exclusively and offers either hosted or on-premises server installation.

Microsoft reveals Surface tablet pricing and announces preorders

David Hunter — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:37:04 +0000

It will not be launched until October 26, but Microsoft today lifted the curtain on their Surface tablet and announced that preorders were being taken at the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft Corp. today released new details about its highly anticipated Microsoft Surface, a tablet PC designed to be the ultimate stage for Windows. In addition to pricing and market availability, the company announced a special limited-quantity pre-order for Surface with Windows RT available 9 a.m. PDT.

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Surface will be available for purchase beginning Oct. 26, 2012, at all Microsoft Store locations in the United States and Canada, including in all 34 new holiday stores. In addition, Surface will be available for sale online in eight markets across the world: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The whole enchilada is available at Surface.com. The pricing appears to be designed to match Apple’s iPad while adding somewhat more hardware for the buck. That’s not a bad plan, but the question will be whether it is enough to catch up with Apple’s huge lead. As for the "ultimate stage for Windows," the Microsoft marketers need to curb the hyperbole – there might be regular business Windows customers listening.

Microsoft buys cloud storage service StorSimple

David Hunter — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:58:37 +0000

Microsoft buys online storage service StorSimple

Microsoft has bought online storage service StorSimple as part of its effort to adapt to shifting technology trends.

The deal gives Microsoft another tool to offer to corporate customers who want to back up their data on computers managed and maintained in remote data centers.

…

Financial terms of Microsoft’s latest acquisition weren’t revealed.

StorSimple, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., had raised more than $31 million from venture capitalists since it was founded three years ago by former executives for Cisco Systems Inc. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

And I am sure the payout wasn’t bad for a 3 year effort.

The good news is that Microsoft’s Xbox got 49% of the US console market last month

David Hunter — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:05:33 +0000

The bad news is that the video game console market is still in the pits:

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said U.S. retailers sold 270,000 Xbox video-game consoles last month, citing data from market researcher NPD Group Inc.

The sales represented 49 percent of the market for current generation consoles, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said today in an e-mailed statement. Stores sold 438,000 Xbox players in the same month a year ago, according to NPD data at the time.

And game sales aren’t very much better.