Microsoft is betting businesses are quickly developing a taste for instant messaging and digital media functions, long held as the domain of consumers. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates alluded to the new features in his Comdex keynote speech Sunday night when he revealed the company will release Windows .Net Server Beta 3 later this month.
But there is a catch: For now, at least, many of the most compelling features will be available only when .Net Server is used with the Windows XP operating system.
The connection created between the desktop and the server clarifies why many apparently consumer-oriented features are found in both Windows XP versions--Home and the business-oriented Professional. Instant messaging, videoconferencing, chat and the streaming content, for example, would appear to appeal more to consumers than to businesses. But Microsoft clearly sees big potential for these technologies in the corporate market.
Bill Gates admitted it - PCs don't work very well. And he promised to fix that - over the next decade. Opening the largest U.S. computer trade show, COMDEX, Gates, the chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., predicted that technology would eventually come together well enough to fade into the background and let users focus on what they want to do. The economy would feel a boost as a result, he said.
"It's got to be a lot easier than it is today," Gates said, referring to the "laborious process" of fixing computer problems, fears of programs crashing each other, and the difficulties of actually using advances, such as Microsoft's software for Internet meetings.
Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it was shipping its accounting and payroll software for small businesses. With the release, the company is taking aim at Intuit Inc., the maker of the popular QuickBooks small business software, and Oracle Corp., which recently beefed up its small business management software portfolio with Web-based products from NetLedger.
The new Microsoft product, called Small Business Manager, uses technology from the software giant's Great Plains Software Inc. acquisition earlier this year and is designed for businesses with fewer than 25 employees and less than $5 million in annual revenue.
The first day of the Comdex Fall trade show officially began with Bill Gates' Digital Decade-themed keynote address, which he delivered to 15,000 people at the MGM Grand Garden arena last night. After his snoozer of a speech at the XP launch 2 weeks ago, we weren't sure what to expect for Comdex. But Gates was right on track, snoozing up the joint again. The sheer number of announcements Gates and others made (and, interestingly, didn't make) during the keynote made taking it all in--and staying awake--difficult. Nevertheless, some of the announced products are exciting.
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday launched the first play in its new game plan to gain ground in the notebook market. The chipmaker, which said last week it plans to pick up speed in the notebook and server markets in 2002, introduced a new 1.2GHz mobile Athlon 4 chip along with a new 950MHz mobile Duron processor.
"2002 will largely be defined by our success in the mobile and server space, and holding ground in the desktop space," Chief Executive Jerry Sanders told attendees at the company's annual analyst meeting last week.
Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates last night announced in his keynote speech at COMDEX Fall 2001 that Microsoft Corp.'s beta 3 of its next-generation Windows® server family would be made available to beta testers later this month. The company will be releasing four new servers, including a single-purpose Web server intended to vastly simplify and speed up the processes of configuring and deploying Web sites and front-end Web applications.
During his COMDEX Fall 2001 keynote address, Microsoft Corp. founder, Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates announced that the launch of Visual Studio .NET will take place at the VSLive! Conference in San Francisco on Feb. 13, 2002. In addition, Microsoft unveiled new customers deploying solutions on the Microsoft .NET Platform. ACCOR Services, CafePress.com, Canadian Pacific Railway Co. and Newport News Shipbuilding join a growing list of companies that recognize the business value of building solutions on the .NET Platform: increased productivity, improved time to market, increased revenue and operating margins, and the ability to quickly produce customized solutions.
NEC on Monday plans to announce its first handheld using Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system. The device is aimed at the corporate market and includes both secure digital and compact flash-memory slots. The MobilePro P300, which includes Intel's 206MHz StrongARM processor, 32MB of built-in memory and a 32MB secure digital memory card, will sell for $599. NEC's launch comes a little more than a month after Microsoft launched the new version of the Pocket PC operating system. Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer and Toshiba have already announced new devices that use the OS. NEC had said it was creating a Pocket PC device for the U.S. market but had not announced details.
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Built on the reliable Windows 2000 Server Family, Windows .NET Server integrates a powerful application environment to develop innovative Web Services and business solutions that dramatically improve process efficiency.
Despite PC industry woes, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates sounded a note of optimism during his Comdex keynote speech, saying exciting technology innovations are on the way.
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