Microsoft Watch

Microsoft Signs Patent Agreement with Amazon

Microsoft announced a cross-licensing agreement with Amazon.com, opening at least a portion of their respective patent portfolios to each other, on Feb. 22.
"We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for IP (intellectual property) and licensing, said in a statement. "Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open-source software is involved."
Details of the agreement, and the actual amount of money changing hands, were undisclosed by Microsoft. According to TechCrunch, Amazon.com isn't commenting beyond what Microsoft has said, but reports indicate that the online retailer will be the one putting up the cash for the deal.
As my colleague Darryl Taft points out in his most excellent article on eWEEK, Microsoft has signed more than 600 licensing agreements since launching its IP licensing program in 2003, with companies ranging from Apple and Hewlett-Packard to Nikon and Fuji Xerox. Such deals help avoid those pesky patent-infringement lawsuits hated by virtually everybody except IP attorneys with Bentley payments.
But we can conjecture freely about the possible ramifications of a possible IP licensing deal between Amazon.com and Microsoft. Both companies, obviously, have been deep-diving into everything tablet PC-related of late; Amazon.com recently announced an SDK (software development kit) for the Kindle that will allow developers to create applications for its high-resolution e-ink display, and Microsoft along with its hardware partners has been planning a major foray into the tablet space.
A cross-pollination of ideas between the two companies, of course, would allow them both to compete more heartily against the upcoming Apple iPad, which potentially threatens a wide variety of segments.
Microsoft already has a "Kindle for PC" app that ports Amazon.com's e-reader interface onto a desktop or laptop, but I could see Amazon.com benefiting from Microsoft's explorations into tablet PC software; Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has suggested in the past that his company is exploring color screens, but that any such development is "multiple years away." If that's true and not just a competitive bluff, then Microsoft's patents could help speed that R&D rate; Amazon.com could also potentially take advantage of Microsoft patents like this one, which allow devices to be wirelessly charged.
Either that, or else Amazon.com could utilize some of Microsoft's rumored Courier technology. Until something concrete comes out, though, it's all smoke and mirrors.

Windows 7 Tech Blogger Admits Being Devil Mountain Software 'CTO'

On Feb. 20, an e-mail popped in my editor-in-chief's inbox from Randall Kennedy, a tech blogger for InfoWorld, with a somewhat ominous opening sentence: "It is my understanding that eWEEK is currently conducting an investigation of the company I founded, Devil Mountain Software, Inc., and both myself and the individual known as 'Craig Barth.'"
"Craig Barth" was CTO of a company called Devil Mountain Software, the Website of which bills its "research and engineering staff" as generators of the "most accurate, authoritative data on Microsoft Windows performance metrics, market share trends and composition." As it turns out, "Craig Barth" and Randall Kennedy are one and the same, sort of like Verbal Kint and Keyser Soze in "The Usual Suspects," only hopefully with fewer exploding ships and less gunfire and tough-guy dialogue.

On Feb. 21, Larry Dignan over at ZDnet published a long story detailing the Craig Barth-Randall Kennedy connection. Kicking off with a cheerful, "Buckle in, because this tale goes from zero to X-files in a few minutes," that article cites InfoWorld quoting extensively from Kennedy/Barth; check it out here. InfoWorld announced in a Feb. 21 blog post that it had given Kennedy the boot for "misrepresenting himself to other media organizations as Craig Barth, CTO of Devil Mountain Software ... in interviews for a number of stories regarding Windows and other Microsoft software topics."
The InfoWorld post continues: "Kennedy has stated that this fabrication was a misguided effort to separate himself (or more accurately, his InfoWorld blogger persona) from his Devil Mountain Software business."
In a short note pasted atop a Feb. 17 article about Windows 7-equipped PCs allegedly draining RAM faster than Hemingway at last call, ComputerWorld's Gregg Keizer--quoted by ZDnet as using Devil Mountain Software often as a source--suggests that he was duped. "Given that he disguised his identity to Computerworld and a number of other publications, the credibility of Kennedy's statements is called into question. Rather than simply remove stories in which he is quoted, we have left them online so readers can weigh his data and conclusions for themselves."
So I set up a call with Kennedy. Might as well hear everybody's side, no?
"I never lied about anything," Kennedy told me during that call on the morning of Feb. 22. However, he did admit to what he described as "riling up" certain groups in a quest for page views; something that paid off, he continued, when he became the site's "single biggest page-view draw."
The problem, Kennedy said, was one of keeping the worlds of entrepreneur and flamewar-instigating enterprise blogger apart; a conundrum that he settled by adopting the Craig Barth moniker for one of those worlds. He came across as defiant about the data produced by Devil Mountain Software, asserting that his analysis was legitimate.
Right before this situation broke open, Devil Mountain Software claimed that a substantial percentage of the 20,000 PCs it monitors were having slowdown issues supposedly related to Windows 7 consuming up to 95 percent of available RAM. Personally, I had never heard a Windows 7 user complain about such an issue (battery life is another story) but Kennedy insists that his data will stand up to third-party verification.
"I'm not trying to deceive anybody, or deceive about the data points; I'm just trying to separate myself from the morass that became my writing for InfoWorld," Kennedy said. "I didn't plagiarize something or steal something and then publish it in The New York Times. I stand for everything Craig ever said; I just used a pseudonym."
Kennedy also mentioned that he had spent the 1990s in consulting gigs for Intel, Microsoft and other major players, which in turn gave him some of the knowledge base necessary to launch his own company. I asked Microsoft whether Kennedy had ever done any consulting work for it during that decade, and if the company had any sort of official statement about the whole debacle. "I have no comment to share on this topic," a Microsoft spokesperson told me on Feb. 22. "Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause."
In an interview today with The Wall Street Journal, Kennedy insisted that InfoWorld had known about his pseudonym for a year and did nothing, while InfoWorld Editor-in-Chief Eric Knorr said that simply "isn't true." Kennedy told me the same thing when I interviewed him, but I'm not going to step into the middle of a "he said/no, he said" debate. Nobody wins those.
Nobody's winning in this situation, either.

Microsoft May Introduce Branded Smartphone in 2011, Says Analyst

Microsoft may roll out its own Nexus One competitor next year, according to a Northeast Securities analyst who reportedly discussed the possibility of a branded phone with Microsoft's suppliers and design partners.
As reported by TheStreet.com and other sources, analyst Ashok Kumar suggested that a branded phone would roll out early in 2011, manufactured by Asustek Computer. The device would presumably run Microsoft's new smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 7, which the company unveiled in a Feb. 15 press conference during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Scuttlebutt about a Microsoft-branded smartphone has been longstanding, even before competitors such as Google began introducing their own devices into the wild. In September 2009, I asked Microsoft about the rumor that it would introduce two branded smartphones early in 2010, which the company refused to comment on and which never came to pass. Even before that, in April, Microsoft responded to rumors that it was developing a smartphone with Verizon (code-named Pink) with a curt declaration that it was "not going into the phone hardware business."
Doubtlessly the rumors of a branded smartphone will persist until Microsoft actually makes an official announcement. In the meantime, though, the company probably has far more pressing issues to deal with in the mobile space. For starters, it'll need to convince developers that the Windows Phone7 Series is a platform worth developing for, despite the rise in Google Android and other competitors; it'll also need to convince the enterprise and small and midsize businesses that the new smartphone OS will meet their needs, despite its ultraconsumer sheen and focus; and lastly, it'll need to work with manufacturers to get the actual devices onto store shelves by holiday 2010, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer predicted.
Those are tall orders for any company, even a particularly large one like Microsoft. And Redmond's future in the mobility space probably dictates that it focus on those goals first before devoting energies to a branded device.

Microsoft and Yahoo Cleared for Search and Advertising Deal

Microsoft and Yahoo apparently received clearance from both the European Commission--that's the EU's antitrust regulatory body--and the U.S. Department of Justice to complete their proposed search and advertising deal.
The 10-year agreement will see Microsoft taking over Yahoo's algorithmic and paid search platforms, while Yahoo handles sales-relationship duties for a substantial segment of both companies' online search advertisers (specifically, high-volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers; Microsoft will apparently handle self-service advertisers). In other words, Bing will become Yahoo's underlying search engine, although Yahoo will continue to offer its own branded content and applications.
"The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the Internet search and search advertising business of Yahoo Inc. by Microsoft," the European Commission, whose regulatory actions have probably resulted in more than one chair being tossed in Microsoft's offices over the years, wrote in a Feb. 18 statement. "The Commission concluded that the concentration would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it."
Hear that soothing, blissful silence? That's Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's heads not exploding in gaudy bursts of rage.
According to a joint statement issued on Feb. 18, the two companies "hope to make significant progress transitioning U.S. advertisers and publishers prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011 if they determine the transition will be more effective after the holiday season. All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012."
I bet Google announces something really nifty in the search and advertising space this week, or at least a new Google Labs feature that lets you take back that tragically worded e-mail before it arrives in your nearest and dearest's inbox.
As I detailed in a previous Microsoft Watch post, Yahoo's percentage of the U.S. search market has been steadily declining. In December 2009, it held 15.3 percent, compared with Google with 65.4 percent and Bing with 10.4 percent. If that trend holds through 2010 and into 2011, it potentially reduces the gains Bing would have otherwise made by running Yahoo's searches, and by extension makes the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo a weaker thing. Both Bing and Yahoo have been integrating more features into their respective lineups in a bid to gain and retain users, which seems to be working out more for Bing than for Microsoft's new partner.
Nonetheless, the deal will likely work out better for Microsoft than if it had succeeded in its attempts to purchase Yahoo back in 2008 for $47.5 billion; had that acquisition gone through, Microsoft would have been tasked with trying to digest a massive company just as the global recession wreaked havoc on its bottom line. Microsoft and Yahoo both face an uphill battle against Google for U.S. search engine market share, but from Redmond's perspective this must be far better than the alternative.

Microsoft Attacks Google Apps ... on YouTube

They'll let anything onto YouTube these days. No, I'm not talking about the millionth video featuring a squirrel lip-syncing to Right Said Fred, but a set of Microsoft-created videos attacking Google Apps. I guess Google, which owns YouTube, really has no inclination to censor anything aside from content that violates copyrights; but watching the Microsoft videos play out next to that YouTube logo is like watching promos for a TV show like "Dexter" (produced by Showtime) playing on HBO or another rival channel.
The videos are available on Microsoft's "officevideos" channel on YouTube. Here's the most visually interesting one, at least if you're a fan of traditional animation. It also avoids singing animals or any of the other YouTube tropes, which is a big plus in my book:

(As TechCrunch mentioned in a Feb. 16 blog post, this seems like just one component of a broader Microsoft strategy of going after its competitors on the cloud-based productivity and mobile fronts: At Mobile World Congress, Microsoft also tossed a left hook at the iPhone and its Apps interface during its video presentation for the Windows Phone 7 Series.)
Those anti-Google Apps videos on YouTube aren't the only reason to suggest that Microsoft could be concerned about its future in the productivity arena: As part of its Office 2010 rollout, Microsoft has been trumpeting zero-cost, stripped-down, cloud-based versions of Word, OneNote, Excel and PowerPoint available to Windows Live subscribers. Some higher-level functionality, though, is being withheld for those who purchase the full version of Office 2010.
As Nick Eaton pointed out in a Feb. 17 blog post, there may be growing concern in Redmond about some governmental and business users gravitating toward Google Apps as an Office alternative. But Microsoft seems to be taking more broad-based aim: Its YouTube presence feeds to a company-sponsored site that compares its offerings with those of Cisco Systems, Google, IBM and OpenOffice.org.
I haven't become attached to Google Apps--personally, I like storing my data on a local drive first and foremost, before I consider uploading to the cloud--and I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone I know personally who uses a cloud-based productivity suite as the primary method of getting things done. But evidently Microsoft thinks it's a threat. I'm interested in hearing your opinion: Do you think Google Apps is a clear and present danger to Office?

Windows Phone 7 Series Offers Questions, Hint of Dell Smartphone

Microsoft unveiled its Windows Phone 7 Series during a Feb. 15 press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The new smartphone operating system certainly represents a sea change from previous editions of Microsoft's mobile franchise; a visual breakdown of its user interface, along with the "hubs" that aggregate both mobile applications and Web services into easy-to-access subject areas, can be found here.
(Despite the gloss of Microsoft's presentation, I still have some questions. First and foremost, is Microsoft planning on a branded smartphone to go along with the devices from its hardware partners? Will devices in the Windows Phone 7 Series be able to multitask, unlike Apple's iPhone? What form will its revamped mobile-applications Marketplace take? And I'm guessing--but it's still unconfirmed--that the devices will support Silverlight for A/V, if only because Adobe and Microsoft officials both told me that Windows Phone 7 will not support Flash at the outset.)
Near the end of the presentation, Microsoft flashed the logos of its hardware partners in the endeavor, including Qualcomm (which will apparently works on optimizing hardware and software), Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Dell. Microsoft has indicated that its various OEMs will produce devices that stick close to a single hardware template, emphasizing the touch screen as well as three mechanical buttons (Start, Search and Back). Most of those hardware partners have a good deal of experience in the mobile-device arena, but the sight of Dell's logo made me wonder if the computer maker was planning to join them in releasing a Windows Phone 7 Series device.
A discussion with a Microsoft executive immediately following the conference yielded nothing on that front, except the claim that hardware manufacturers were still finalizing their plans. But I'm betting it'll look something like the Mini 3:
On Jan. 6, Reuters published a story about Dell offering its Mini 3 touch-screen smartphone in the U.S., with Google Android for an operating system and AT&T providing coverage. The device was predicted to hit the market sometime before June 2010, according to the report, but there was no word on a price-point. (It's already been released in China and Brazil.)
Dell clearly wants to be a player in mobile devices, which seems to be a smart move on the surface: As every pundit and their mother has noted over the past year, smartphones as mobile computing platforms have become the Next Big Thing, even as traditional PC sales remained anemic for much of 2009. In its official announcement, however, Dell declined to offer any sort of specs, which makes it difficult to compare against another touch-screen device like, say, the Nexus One (although they did offer that photograph of the prototype, above).
But if Dell also issues a device that runs Windows Phone 7, I'll bet it has a form factor very similar to the Mini 3, albeit with those three mechanical buttons that'll likely be standard in all devices running the operating system. At the very least, we'll find out by the fourth quarter of 2010, when the first Windows Phone 7 devices are slated to hit the marketplace.
(And by the way, my theory that Microsoft would roll its newest mobile operating system into the wild by the end of 2010? Completely validated. All hail my predictive powers.)

Windows Mobile 7 Will Debut on Feb. 15, Sources Say

There's a story circulating courtesy of The Wall Street Journal that Microsoft will indeed unveil Windows Mobile 7 during a Feb. 15 news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" elaborated further to the WSJ's Nick Wingfield, saying the operating system's user interface was reminiscent of that of the Zune HD.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is indeed headlining that press conference, and they tend not to trot him out for anything less than a major product launch--certainly they'd be less inclined to put him in front of a microphone if all Microsoft planned on debuting was an upgraded version of Mobile 6.5. So count that as a point in the Journal's favor.
Mobile 7 would indeed be the complete reboot of the smartphone OS franchise that Microsoft is apparently looking for, if it drops the Mobile 6.5 interface for something sleek-looking like that of the Zune HD. It does raise a few points of concern and interest to me, though.
The first involves mobile applications.
Microsoft launched its Windows Marketplace for Mobile in October in conjunction with the release of Mobile 6.5, in order to take advantage of the general trend of smartphone app stores. Although Microsoft executives said over the summer of 2009 that they hoped to begin with a storefront of 600 apps, the actual number upon launch was 246.
About a week ago, I asked Microsoft how many applications were currently in Marketplace. They declined to tell me, saying something about how the number is continually growing, so I headed over to the Marketplace Website, where I hand-counted 718 for U.S.-based Mobile 6.x phones (the site also offers a variety of apps in languages other than English). That's a far cry from the numbers available for either the iPhone or devices running Google Android.
What I'm wondering, though, is if any of those apps developed for Mobile 6.x will run on Mobile 7. If so, how many? Will developers have to go in and rewrite applications in order to make them run on Microsoft's new mobile OS? If so, what's their incentive?
The second is about devices.
According to the Wall Street Journal article, "Project Pink" will also be debuted early in 2010. For those of you who don't follow Microsoft closely, Pink is a long-gestating branded smartphone project. The rumor mill has even suggested at various points that Microsoft is actually developing two devices under the project's umbrella, code-named Turtle and Pure, which would feature a sliding form factor reminiscent of the Sidekick.
In theory, Project Pink would be running Mobile 7, along with any number of new Windows Phone devices that Microsoft is planning with its OEMs. New hardware, a new mobile OS that likely incorporates a substantial touch-screen element thanks to the Zune HD-style interface ... it would all be light-years ahead of Mobile 6.5, and therein lies the issue: Microsoft would be increasing the size of its device and software ecosystem at a time when it should probably be thinking about streamlining and refining its mobile offerings.
In other words, it'll be interesting to see how Microsoft tries to juggle all this. The company intends Mobile 7 to be a reboot, something that'll let it get back in the game against Google Android, RIM's BlackBerry line and the iPhone OS. Unless it executes well, though, there exists the chance that Microsoft could simply muddy its mobile situation even further.

Bill Gates Is Not Impressed by the iPad

Dear Steve Jobs: Bill Gates is apparently not impressed by your latest wonder toy, the iPad.
That comes from Brent Schlender of Bnet, who quotes the former Microsoft CEO in a Feb. 10 article about Apple's newest device.
"You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard--in other words, a netbook--will be the mainstream of that," Gates supposedly told Schlender. "So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with the iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"
The last time I checked, though, it seemed that Microsoft was already working with its hardware partners on several tablet PCs similar to the iPad in form factor, and which don't involve either a pen or a real keyboard: Specifically, I'm thinking of the tablet PC from Hewlett-Packard that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer debuted during his Jan. 6 keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas (Microsoft has kept tight-lipped about the device's exact specs, but you can view my photos of it here on eWEEK).

Microsoft software will also run on tablet PCs from Pegatron and Archos, and I'm sure that other manufacturers have their own designs ready for announcement and manufacture if the tablet market should explode over the next few months.
The question is: Will it explode? Before the iPad made its Jan. 27 debut in San Francisco, the sheer amount of buzz building around the latest Apple product made it seem as if tablets would become the ultimate Next Big Thing. In the wake of that announcement, and the revelation that the iPad was incapable of curing cancer and solving the global warming problem, there's been a bit of a letdown. People seem to be asking, Is that it?
The iPad will likely see a flock of early adopters (I'm predicting long lines at Apple Stores the night before its release), but if its sales numbers flag in the stretch, then a) the previous thinking that tablet PCs are ultimately a niche product for professionals will once again be validated, as will be b) the primacy of mechanical input--in other words, a real keyboard--for devices larger than a smartphone.
And in that case, Gates' comments will be validated; but those products introduced to take advantage of a supposed Apple popularization of tablet PCs, such as HP's upcoming device, could very well crash and burn.
What do you think?

Bing Gains In Search Market Share, Says Report

According to statistics firm comScore, Microsoft claimed 11.3 percent of U.S. online searches in January, with both Yahoo and Google recording incremental losses that put them at a respective 17 percent and 65.4 percent of the market.
"Overall, the trends continue to be very strong for Bing, and remain very bad for Yahoo," BroadPoint AmTech analyst Ben Schacter wrote in a Feb. 9 research note. "Investors hoping that tonight's data would show stabilization for Yahoo will be disappointed." Since November 2008, Yahoo's market share has declined by more than three points.
Yahoo's continual erosion suggests that the company's multimillion-dollar advertising push, and its renewed emphasis on its end-user functionality, is not performing as CEO Carol Bartz evidently hoped. It also potentially weakens the search-and-advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft last summer, which will see Bing powering search on Yahoo's sites; if Yahoo users keep jumping ship, then the market share that Bing will receive from its rival/partner will necessarily decrease. Bing's share of the U.S. search engine market could have risen to around 30 percent without attrition; the real number, it seems, will be somewhere south of that.
If Yahoo continues on this downward trajectory, that increases the pressure on Bing to gain market share solely through its own initiatives and features. Microsoft seems dedicated to making its search engine increasingly robust, having closed out 2009 by rolling out several new Bing features, including a beta version of Bing Maps and a more in-depth video-search page.
But the Feb. 9 rollout of Google Buzz, which allows Gmail users to post status updates and swap media such as Picasa photos, suggests that Google is cognizant of the old adage about large companies' worst enemy being complacency; the introduction of that service was not only a direct competitive challenge to the current social-networking primacy of Twitter and Facebook, but also a message to Microsoft that Google will continue to initiate seismic changes to its online lineup in 2010.
I'm expecting that Microsoft and Google will continue to play leapfrog throughout the rest of the year, adding new features and integration with other services. If Bing continues its momentum, it has the opportunity to become the next Yahoo, market-share wise. But Yahoo itself continues to be in very fundamental trouble.

Zune HD Price Cuts a Promotion, Says Microsoft

Microsoft updated me on the whole Zune price-reduction news from yesterday. Just to recap: The Zune HD 16GB and Zune HD 32GB were both $20 off on the online Microsoft store, with the devices also receiving stiff discounts on other retailer sites such as Amazon.com. There was debate online about whether the discounts were a totally innocuous occurrence, or if it was a deliberate price reduction ahead of a tech refresh.
Microsoft got back to me late on Feb. 8:
"The current prices for Zune HD on ZuneOriginals.net are available for a limited time," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote. "It also appears that some online retailers are offering additional promotions and price cuts on Zune HD devices. We have not lowered the ESRP for Zune HD."
I assume that "ESRP" is the equivalent of "ERP," or estimated retail price. Anyway, if you take the above statement at face value, it seems as if this is more a promotion than anything else. Some bloggers and pundits were suggesting yesterday that Microsoft was lowering the price of the Zune HD because it planned to produce a "Zune Phone" or similar device at the Mobile World Congress next week.
Does this price-reduction-as-promotion mean that Zune won't be a part of whatever device Microsoft announces on Feb. 15? I don't think it would appreciably reduce the chances of Zune functionality being somehow integrated into whatever software the company decides to announce on that date.
That being said, I still don't think that Microsoft is going to put Zune branding front and center with this next mobile release, even if it uses Zune software for media playing or even PC syncing. Zune's market share isn't nearly strong enough to support what many see as Microsoft's Hail Mary pass in the mobile division, and it would likely turn off at least a segment of the business users that Microsoft needs if it wants its next mobile iteration to succeed.
I'm betting that Microsoft will demonstrate Mobile 7 at the event, and announce it for release sometime late in the second half of 2010. I'm discounting the chances of the Feb. 15 announcement being a Mobile 6.5.x release because Microsoft's already pushing Mobile 6.5.3 into the ecosystem; a radically altered version right on top of a tweaked (separate) version would represent too muddled an initiative. Whether Mobile 7 is announced along with a "Project Pink"-branded smartphone is something I'm leaving at 50/50 odds.
But then again, I also bet against the Saints on Sunday, so take my predictive powers with a grain of salt.

Zune HD Price Cuts Could Signify Smartphone with Zune Software

Zune HD 32GB and Zune HD 16GB are both $20 off at the online Microsoft Store, while the devices are also experiencing steep discounts on retailer sites such as Amazon.com. A fairly complete list of the price cuts can be found here.
A few other bloggers have commented on this already, but I figured the sale was worth mentioning within the context of the Mobile World Congress rumors about a "Zune Phone," or smartphone with Zune software, making its debut at some undefined future point. Price cuts sometimes come simply because a manufacturer wants an uptick in sales of a particular product, but the promotional quiet surrounding these particular Zune discounts, in conjunction with those MWC rumors, makes me think (along with other writers) that there could be something going on here.
On Feb. 6, the blog PPC Geeks reported (quoting unnamed sources) that Microsoft will announce a new mobile platform at a press conference in Barcelona on Feb. 15, one that features an interface very similar to the one already present on the Zune HD. In addition, the platform will supposedly integrate Zune syncing and software.
That PPC Geeks rumor followed another rumor from last week, generated by Spanish blog MuyComputer, which said Microsoft planned on announcing a "Zune Phone" running "Nvidia's Tegra platform" at the conference. That rumor also quoted unnamed sources, which means it should be taken with the appropriate bowling-ball-sized grain of salt, but nonetheless seemed to jibe somewhat with the PPC Geeks' talk of Zune integration.
So there's the possibility that Microsoft is dropping the pricing on the Zune HD ahead of launching a new (and more expensive) multimedia smartphone with Zune software. Except I'm not wholly convinced, at least based on what I've seen, that Microsoft will put Zune branding at the center of its next mobile operating system iteration: First of all, pushing Zune functionality within that context has the high potential of turning off the enterprise and business audience, which is the one segment that Microsoft can absolutely not afford to alienate if it wants to regain any traction in the mobile space.
Secondly, Zune's market share is in the single digits, and I haven't seen anything lately that makes me think that the device's stagnant/declining trend will reverse itself in the short term. (Despite the quality of the Zune HD--I reviewed one back in September and thought it a worthy competitor to my much-loved but hopelessly battered iPod Touch--I've never seen anyone actually using one.) Therefore, it seems unlikely to me from a branding perspective that Microsoft would use "Zune" as the banner under which it would choose to rally its declining mobile OS franchise--better to start anew, as it did with Bing, than to tie itself to something that hasn't made much marketplace headway.
But maybe I'm thinking about it in the wrong way. Maybe Microsoft hopes that it can raise the fortunes of both Zune and Windows Mobile by bringing the two franchises together. The idea still seems strange to me, though.
I've asked Microsoft for comment and they haven't gotten back to me yet, but I'll update when I find out more.

Microsoft Failing in Innovation, Former Executive Asserts

On Feb. 3, a former Microsoft executive named Dick Brass published an op-ed piece in The New York Times that suggested his ex-company was "failing" due to a combination of infighting and an inability to innovate. Those issues, Brass said, had led to Microsoft losing the lead on a number of technological developments, including e-reader technology, that if carried out successfully could have potentially led it to greater market share in various areas.
For example, Brass suggests that work on a tablet PC was effectively hamstrung in 2001 when "the vice president in charge of Office at the time decided he didn't like the concept" and "thought our efforts doomed." To this day, he asserts, "you still can't use Office directly on a tablet PC."
Microsoft responded (responding is basically your own response, when an ex-employee gets their hands on a megaphone as large as the Times) on the official Microsoft blog. "Former Microsoft employee Dick Brass has an op-ed in the NYT arguing that our better days are behind us," Frank Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications, wrote in a Feb. 4 posting. "Obviously, we disagree."
Shaw went on to argue that Microsoft aims first and foremost to deliver technologies with "broad impact." When it comes to things like tablet PCs, he argued, "You could argue that this should have happened faster. And sometimes it does. But for a company whose products touch vast numbers of people, what matters is innovation at scale, not just innovation at speed." He highlighted Xbox 360 as "the first high definition console" and cited the upcoming Project Natal as "the first to deliver controller-free experiences" for gamers.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has insisted at several points that he wants the company playing to the broadest possible audience. "You can't be high priced," he told a gathering of financial analysts back in July. "That doesn't get us to the high volume that we aspire to."
When it comes to tech, you don't necessarily need to be first out the gate--both the iPod and the iPhone were late entrants to the portable media player and smartphone markets--but you do need to produce something that offers a differentiator of some sort if you want to build and sustain a competitive advantage. Every time a company announces an upcoming "game-changing" product, you wait to see whether that device or software platform will indeed hit that sweet spot between the radical and familiar, and become one of those objects that reorganize your whole world. It's possible for any company to offer a technology like that, but the larger ones run the risk of becoming calcified in their habits and self-destructive at their core--something that Brass seems to allude to.
What do you think? Is Microsoft "failing," as Brass asserts? Or does the company have something going in this supposed focus on disseminating technology to a wide base through its massive channels?

Microsoft Says Windows 7 Battery Life Investigation Under Way

Microsoft has been investigating user complaints related to the battery life of laptops running Windows 7, a problem that's apparently been drifting around since the widespread beta version was released into the wild. While there don't seem to be exact figures for the number of users affected, the issue does seem to occur for those users upgrading their laptops to Windows 7 from either Windows Vista or Windows XP.
I queried Microsoft about the battery issue Feb. 3, and a spokesperson responded with: "Microsoft has been made aware that some computers running Windows 7 receive a warning that battery needs to be replaced when the battery is new or in good health. In conjunction with our hardware partners, we are investigating this issue."
Good thing, too, because if the comments left over the previous few months on the Microsoft TechNet discussion forum are any indication, the battery life for some users experiencing the issue is as short as 15 minutes.
A number of readers commented on my original eWEEK story, and I've printed a selection below:

"I have a Dell Latitude D830 and I'm experiencing the exact problem since I installed Windows 7."
"One year old, 6cell battery does not last an hour with win 7."
"YES, I am having similar issues with Win 7!! I have a Dell XPS 16 that is less than a year old, upgraded from Vista to Win 7 and now get 1.5hrs of battery life if I am lucky!!"
"I agree that Win7 is probably not using up batteries much, if any, faster than XP or Vista. Based on nothing but the anecdotal data available, I would opine that there is some error in the way Win7 is interpreting the battery information provided by the hardware. Yes, this IS a problem with Win7. It doesn't take rocket science to determine that, given the same power management settings, batteries should yield about the same charge endurance under XP, Vista or Win7."
"For those doubters, did you check out the link to the TechNet forum? I have personally experienced a problem after upgrading a Dell laptop from Vista to 7 - incessant warnings to replace the battery until I disabled the feature. Hopefully MS will work with the manufacturers and figure out what is wrong."
Others have upgraded but don't seem to be experiencing any issues:
"I updated my Packard Bell from Vista to Windows 7: my battery is working without problems. Why are people so irrational about Microsoft?"
"Considering the extra horsepower required by Win7 (especially compared to XP) why is this a surprise? Win 7 is burning thru cpu and graphics cycles compared to older versions of Windows. Did anyone think the battery life would not be affected?"

Right now I'm interested in whether this is truly a widespread problem, or an affliction of a relatively small minority. If you have your own story to share, feel free to post a comment below.

Windows Executive Mike Nash to Leave Microsoft

Microsoft executive Mike Nash, currently the corporate vice president for Windows Platform Strategy, is apparently preparing to leave the company. A widely circulated statement from a Microsoft spokesperson said Nash will depart "in a couple weeks."
Nash spent 19 years at Microsoft, where he held a number of positions related to Windows and security. During a 2008 class action lawsuit filed against Microsoft over whether "Vista Capable" PCs could truly run that operating system, the plaintiffs' attorneys highlighted an internal e-mail from Nash that supposedly read: "I personally got burnt ... Are we seeing this from customers? ... I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine." Microsoft argued in court that Nash's e-mail had been taken out of context along with others.
Nash isn't the first high-level Windows executive to recently announce his departure. On Jan. 15, Microsoft announced that Bill Veghte, also a 19-year veteran of the company, would be leaving at the end of that month. "Bill has indicated a desire to run a business in a more end-to-end fashion and continue to explore new ideas in the broad technology, communications and services sectors," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a Jan. 15 statement. "I want to thank Bill for his important contributions to Microsoft over nearly two decades and wish him the best in his new endeavors."
I can think of two explanations for this minor uptick in executive departures: Either they've been harboring thoughts of leaving for some time, but delayed until Windows 7 was successfully launched, or else Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky has initiated some sort of shakeup.
In any case, it'll be interesting to see how Sinofsky structures his team going forward, but I'm also wondering what sort of effect this legacy brain-drain will have on the development of Windows 8, which the rumor mill suggests could be released in 2012 ("We have nothing to share about Windows 8 at this point," various Microsoft spokespeople tell me, whenever I ask for updates).

Sony Ericsson Phone Offers Tweaked Windows Mobile 6.5.3

The new Sony Ericsson Aspen smartphone made its debut on Feb. 2, which is of note because it's running the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 operating system. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, Windows Mobile 6.5.3 includes the following tweaks:
User Interface
Capacitive touch-screen support
Platform to enable multitouch
Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus)
Consistent navigation
Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about screen)
Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications
Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
Drag-and-drop icons on Start Screen
Browser
Page load time decreased
Memory management improved
Pan & flick gestures smoothed
Zoom & rotation speed increased
Other
Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
Arabic read/write document support
Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes
Now here's my question: At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, Microsoft is slated to debut something as-yet-unseen, something that various Microsoft executives have described as a sort of paradigm shift. Many in the blogosphere have interpreted this to mean that the company will debut Windows Mobile 7, perhaps running on a Microsoft-branded smartphone.
But if—if—Microsoft actually rolls out Mobile 7 during its scheduled press conference on Feb. 15, what will it do with Mobile 6.5 and its incremental upgrades? The Sony Ericsson Aspen may be the first phone to run Mobile 6.5.3, but it almost certainly won't be the last released this year; even if Mobile 7 doesn't debut on a device until the first half of 2011, that means any number of phones in circulation out there will still be running Mobile 6.5.x.
Does that mean Microsoft will support both mobile operating systems on a variety of different phones? How will that play out for end users, not to mention developers? With these updated features to Mobile 6.5, it seems that Microsoft is taking steps in the right direction with regard to better touch functionality and other user-interface features (at the very least, it helps them swim in the same direction as Google Android, the iPhone, etc.), but right now I'm wondering more about Redmond's longer-term mobile strategy.