Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, said on Monday it launched its newest version of software for mobile devices as it aims to take a larger share of the mobile software market. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft also used the launch to rebrand its software for handheld computers and mobile phones with the word "Windows," the names used for its dominant desktop operating system and server software for networked computers.
"The dominant brand for us is Windows, and our mobile products will fall under the umbrella brand called 'Windows Mobile'," said Ed Suwanjindar, product manager for Microsoft's mobile devices division.
Network-computer maker Sun Microsystems is going on the offense against archrival Microsoft by building its Java software as a consumer brand, Sun chairman and chief executive Scott McNealy said on Friday.
"We're going from defensive to offensive," McNealy said at a press conference after his keynote speech to some 10,000 software programmers at Sun's JavaOne technical conference in San Francisco on Friday. "We spent eight years building and protecting this brand and now it's time to go on the offensive."
At the same time, Sun is still in defensive mode, as speculation persists that it may be a takeover target in light of the 92 percent drop in its stock since a record closing high of $64.31 in September 2000.
Microsoft announced Monday that Peter Cullen, the corporate privacy officer for the Royal Bank of Canada, will be joining the software giant as its new chief privacy strategist. The top privacy officer has more than a decade of experience in the field, including establishing the Royal Bank of Canada's best practices for data handling in Canada and the United States, said the company in a statement.
Cullen will join Microsoft on July 14, reporting to Scott Charney, the company's chief strategist in charge of its "Trustworthy Computing" initiative. The Redmond, Wash. software giant launched the corporate initiative in January 2002 as a way to secure its products, raise reliability and regain consumer trust.
I guess no one wants anything to do with Oracle.
J.D. Edwards customers are overwhelmingly opposed to Oracle's takeover bid for PeopleSoft, which plans to merge with J.D. Edwards, according to a poll taken by an organization that represents J.D. Edwards customers.
The group, called Quest, conducted an online poll with J.D. Edwards customers that showed that 80 percent of respondents backed the proposed merger with PeopleSoft. Both companies sell business software for automating corporate processes such as manufacturing and human resources.
Poll respondents also indicated that a takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle would result in fewer options for J.D. Edwards customers, according to Quest, which represents about 2,000 corporate customers. A union with PeopleSoft would be more beneficial to current J.D. Edwards customers, because the two companies' product lines are complementary, according to Quest.
Microsoft is no longer the second-largest company on earth; the company fell to third place this week, thanks to strong gains by drug maker Pfizer. Microsoft didn't actually lose any value--the company is still valued at $279 billion--but Pfizer has seen its stock soar recently because the company has been buying rivals and releasing popular new products. Pfizer is now worth about $285 billion. Both companies, however, trail General Electric (GE), which is valued at $307 billion.
There's probably a deeper meaning to Microsoft's recent announcement that it will no longer develop Internet Explorer for Macintosh, blaming Apple's release of its own still-in-beta browser, Safari. Maybe Steve Jobs will talk about this today during his keynote at Apple's annual developer conference. But I won't hold my breath.
I wonder, for example: Which company led this dance? Did Microsoft tell Apple it had better come up with a browser because IE for Mac would be going away? Or is this Microsoft's response to Apple's cheeky decision to do its own browser? My guess would be the former. But whichever is correct, the implications concern me.
A Japanese newspaper on Friday retracted statements attributed to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer regarding a new version of the Xbox. Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Friday that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking during a press event, said a next-generation version of the Xbox video game console would arrive in 2006, later than many industry figures had expected.
The newspaper later said the statement was incorrectly attributed to Ballmer and instead was meant to reflect general expectations by industry analysts on the timing of next-generation video game consoles. The year was also listed incorrectly, the newspaper said--analysts expect new consoles will hit the market in 2005.
Aiming to play up its Windows heritage, Microsoft on Monday will unveil a new version of its handheld operating system that boasts the new Windows Mobile name, but only a few new features. The new software is a less radical change than Microsoft made with the original version of Pocket PC or with the Pocket PC 2002 upgrade. Nonetheless, hardware makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, ViewSonic and Toshiba, are using the new OS to launch new or improved handheld devices.
"This version probably has less new features and is more focused on refining the experience," said Ed Suwanjindar, lead product manager for the Windows Mobile division. In particular, the new operating system is focused on simplifying the connection to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networks, as well as improving e-mail and synching with Exchange--although some of the new features are tied to the forthcoming release of Exchange 2003.
Microsoft and Apple Computer are set to face off "mano a desktop" on the publicity front. The software giant is expected to unveil the next version of its Pocket PC operating system for handheld computers, while Apple is set to reveal a line of speedy new desktop PCs. Meanwhile, a new industry group backed by heavyweights such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard will introduce new home networking standards, and portable computing stalwarts Palm and Research In Motion report earnings.
Thanks Ditto!
Dear Valued Office 2003 Technical Beta Participant,
Important! Microsoft Office 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Announcement
We are pleased to announce the Microsoft Office 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh
is now available. Go to www.betaplace.com and click on the Beta 2 Technical
Refresh downloads link.
The Betaplace downloads page provides Beta 2 Technical Refresh patches for
the Beta 2 build of Office 2003, Publisher 2003, FrontPage 2003, OneNote 2003
and InfoPath 2003. A Multilingual User Interface Pack refresh patch is also
available. Refresh builds of Visio 2003 and Business Contact Manager for Outlook
2003, as well as SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services
are included as full file downloads.
The download and installation may be a several step process if you installed
multiple applications from the 'Microsoft Office System Beta 2 Kit 2003'. Please
review the Known Issues list on www.betaplace.com for help with setup and
installation issues, as well as notes on other applications in the Beta 2
Technical Refresh.
When filing bugs, please note that a new product build "B2TR (build 5329)"
has been entered in the product release field. In addition, Visio is now listed
as a product in the product area field. A new newsgroup node has also been
created in the o11iep and o11oep newsgroup trees for Visio related issues.
If you have questions or encounter problems please go to the appropriate
Microsoft Office 2003 beta newsgroup (microsoft.beta.o11oep.xxxxx or
microsoft.beta.o11iep.xxxxx) or for beta administration issues please email
onetprp@microsoft.com.
If you need updates to other products, you may find them through the beta or
trial evaluation programs specific to that product:
www.microsoft.com/windows/default.mspx
www.microsoft.com/exchange
Thank You,
The Microsoft Office System Team