Next week, Microsoft will release new communications software aimed at teenagers that the company hopes will make it more hip and relevant to the "NetGen," those in the 13-24 age range. The software, dubbed 3 Degrees, isn't a boy band, though it sounds like one, and it certainly isn't about productivity, though the "Newsweek" article that first reported on the software seems to think this is Microsoft's first attempt at non-productive software (I guess that publication has never heard of Microsoft Games, the Xbox, or its vast digital media lineup). Instead, 3 Degrees is for people who treat the Internet like oxygen--they're online as long as possible each day--and they want to interact with their friends constantly, in a seamless manner.
Mobile phone software makers Microsoft and Symbian upped the ante at the world's largest wireless trade show on Monday, claiming new customers and shareholders as operators gear up to bring games and the Internet to handsets. Microsoft announced its second European operator to buy a design for its smartphone in Germany's T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, while Britain's Symbian said it had signed up the fifth of the world's top-five phone makers as an investor: South Korea's Samsung Electronics.
The announcements underline the clash emerging at the annual Cannes 3GSM conference as mobile phone hardware makers face a looming competitive threat from Intel, Microsoft and a host of Asian electronics companies.
Microsoft said on Monday that German mobile operator T-Mobile would be its second European customer for mobile phone software, while more Asian electronics makers were ready to produce handsets that use its software. T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, will buy handsets manufactured by Taiwan contract manufacturer High Tech Computer , the same company that built the first Microsoft-enabled handset for France's mobile operator Orange, a unit of France Telecom. "It will be available in the summer," Anne Marie Duffy, Microsoft's European marketing manager for mobile devices, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
As it begins the North American push for its just-released Microsoft CRM suite this week, Microsoft Corp. is laying the groundwork for a broader push into e-business applications while expanding its partner channel to build out the software. Future versions of the customer relationship management software, which began shipping late last month, will expand beyond Version 1.0's sales and customer service applications targeted at small and midsize businesses. They will include marketing applications and broader e-business functionality, such as applications for field service, mobility, e-commerce and portals, Microsoft officials said last week.
As it prepares Windows Server 2003 for release on April 24, Microsoft this week disclosed plans to enhance its server operating system for blade servers, as well as high-end data center virtualization. At its Silicon Valley Speaker Series here, executives at the software giant pointed to enhancements in Windows Server 2003 for blades such as remote boot capabilities, and hinted at others coming down the pike for the next server OS. Microsoft is in discussions with OEMs on both the blade and high-end server front.
Bill Gates cooler than Jay-Z, students think so
SeattleTimes
For a moment in time yesterday - one that may never happen again - Bill Gates was cooler than Jay-Z. A group of 150 high-school students was asked to choose a video to watch on a new Microsoft portable media player. Would it be a performance by rap artist Jay-Z, or Gates dancing in an Austin Powers outfit? It was Bill, baby!
The students were at Microsoft's campus yesterday to learn about digital media, video games and other technologies. The annual event was sponsored by Blacks at Microsoft, an employee group.
At January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, PC Magazine editor-in-chief Michael Miller talked with Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates. The conversation ranged from Tablet PCs and Microsoft's effort-dubbed SPOT-to infuse watches and other everyday objects with online intelligence, to a slated Xbox Live showdown between Gates and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal. "I'm a little worried," Gates conceded, regarding the face-off with Shaq.
MM: You have introduced all sorts of new platforms over the last year. In particular, we've seen Smart Displays, the Tablet PC, Media Center, and SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology). Which is the one that you've been the closest to?
BG: The common thread for everything I do is this idea of a Web-services architecture. What does that mean? It means taking components of software and systems and having them be self-describing, so that you can aim them, ask them what their capabilities are, and communicate with them using a standard protocol.
Sina said on Friday that Microsoft will incorporate its popular text-messaging system for cell phone users into software aimed at office workers in China, and the Chinese Internet company's shares surged nearly 11 percent. Under the agreement, desktop versions of Microsoft's Office XP, which combines word-processing, spreadsheet and other programs, and Outlook 2002 e-mail contact and scheduling software will include Sina's short message services system for mobile phone users.
Sina, which targets Chinese Internet users in the world's most populous country and around the world through 15 localized Web sites, recently turned in its first-ever quarterly profit. It has headquarters in both Beijing and a few miles south of San Francisco.
Web services will play a key role in Yukon, the next version of Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server database, a company executive said. Giving a preview of the upcoming technology at the VSLive show here, David Campbell, product unit manager of the SQL Server Engine at Microsoft, said in a keynote presentation Thursday, "SQL Server Yukon is a great Web services engine."
Tom Rizzo, a group product manager for SQL Server, gave a demonstration of Yukon, where he built a business-to-business portal solution using the technology. In it, he showed "cross-domain queries where we combined the best of XML and the best of relational technology."
Open-source software has already shaken up the operating systems business. Now, Java server software makers are feeling the heat. Analysts say it's difficult to measure the extent to which open-source Java application servers, such as Tomcat and JBoss, have eaten into the revenue of commercial providers of Java application servers. But the growing popularity of the open-source application servers is undeniable.
"There are clearly situations where companies are making bets on open-source products to save a lot of money," said Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler, citing companies such as search giant Google and office equipment supplier Corporate Express. "The issue is not so much the quality of the technology, but the quality of the service and support."