Microsoft's television division is licensing its software to major cable operators in Mexico as it builds momentum for its tests in the United States. Microsoft TV Division will announce Tuesday that it is signing three of the largest cable operators in Mexico to use its software in set-top boxes to be installed in subscribers' homes. The companies have already begun sending subscribers boxes that use Microsoft TV software, such as Microsoft's interactive program guide, its Foundation Edition software and Microsoft TV Advanced.
When the installations are complete, Microsoft TV software should be in about 725,000 boxes by the end of 2004. The deals are nonexclusive, multiyear agreements, and Microsoft has not invested in any of these operators, according to Ed Graczyk, a director of marketing at Microsoft TV Division.
He didn't disclose the high-level secrets of the next Windows operating system, but Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates yesterday gave university researchers a few hints about the advances the company will be seeking during the next several years.
Gates, speaking to more than 350 faculty researchers, described the current areas of research and development that Microsoft considers most important. They range from major concerns such as computer security to practical ones, such as using your mobile device to access the file you created on your home computer.
A summer release of Office for Mac OS X will add client functions to the suite's e-mail and PIM component as well as performance tweaks and bug fixes. Microsoft Corp. this summer will deliver an update to Office for Mac OS X this summer, providing Exchange support for OS X users in corporate environments.
The update, Version 10.1.4 of Office X, will add Exchange client functions to Office's e-mail and PIM component, Entourage. It will also incorporate bug fixes to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft provided the update to beta testers in July.
Microsoft's most seniormanagers are to be paid bonuses based on the number of customers the company adds over a three-year period, it has emerged. The compensation plan, which ranks as one of the most radical ever adopted by a large company, is part of a wider attempt by Steve Ballmer, chief executive, to transform Microsoft's culture from one based around its inwardly-focused product development teams.
Microsoft's top sales and product managers have also begun monthly meetings for the first time in an attempt to make it less insular and to break down the internal barriers that have traditionally separated individual development groups.
Are Microsoft's best years already behind it? To Bill Gates and other executives, the question sounds like heresy. Software is still in its infancy and Microsoft dominates its industry in a way that few other companies could ever hope to copy. Steve Ballmer, chief executive, calls it "hogwash" to suggest that innovation in software is slowing. The next overhaul of Microsoft's products, likely to be completed in two or three years, will trigger a whole "cycle of innovation" in the technology industry, he says.
But even if the future for software is bright, Microsoft's long-term prosperity is far from assured. The software business is changing, and Microsoft's continued dominance is no longer a given.
Complete server systems running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition will cost less than $1,000, a Microsoft executive says. During a speech to financial analysts last week, Microsoft senior vice president for servers and tools, Eric Rudder, said, "It will have an incredibly attractive price point. You'll see this product actually bundled with compelling OEM server hardware, for less than $1,000."
Rudder's comments were Microsoft's first on-the-record statements about pricing for the new edition of Small Business Server, which is expected to be completed in September. Normally, Microsoft first unveils pricing data when a product is released to manufacturing.
Microsoft is working on an update to its MSN 8 Internet software subscription product that will have several new features and, for the first time, be sold worldwide, company executives said. The product, which Microsoft internally refers to as MSN Premium or MSN 9, is planned to be released before the end of the year and will be targeted at broadband Internet users, Yusuf Mehdi, the head of Microsoft's MSN Personal Services & Business division said in an interview Thursday.
Microsoft is also considering launching an online music service to rival Apple's iTunes, Mehdi said. Such a service would likely replace Microsoft's current service it offers in partnership with Pressplay.
Microsoft is beefing up its MSN search engine to go head-to-head with Google, but at the same time has no immediate plans to cancel its agreement for paid search listings with Overture Services, which was recently bought by MSN rival Yahoo.
"MSN Search falls into the category of our [key] businesses," said Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN in an interview at Microsoft's headquarters here on Friday. "We are working on building our own search engine from scratch."
While seeking to aggressively compete with Google, Microsoft appears to be taking a different tack with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo. Microsoft, for now, continues to use technology from Yahoo-owned Inktomi for MSN Search and has no plans to pull its agreement with Overture for paid search listings on MSN Search.
Microsoft said last week it plans to hire 4,000 to 5,000 new workers and to increase research spending by about 8 percent, to $6.9 billion per year. The company also said it has $49 billion lying around collecting interest.
SO WHAT should Bill and Steve do with these wondrous resources? My suggestion: Start over.
Yes, I think they should build a new operating system, as much from scratch as necessary to solve Windows's most intractable problem: It's not all that easy to use and really isn't getting any easier. It's also bloated with features and controls that most people never need, further weakening its ease of use.
It hasn't be significantly updated since 1998, but Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues to dominate the Web, garnering a record market share of 95.4 percent, according to real-time web analytics firm OneStat.com. What's more, IE has garnered its highest usage level ever at a time when other browsers, such as Mozilla Firebird and Apple Safari, have earned record amounts of publicity for adding crucial features IE lacks, including pop-up ad blocking and a tabbed user interface that optionally negates the need for opening multiple browser windows.