Microsoft's latest Windows version, Windows XP, continues its torrid sales pace, the company told me today, with over 46 million licenses sold since the product's launch last October. This morning, at the company's annual financial analysts meeting, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the milestone and noted that XP continues to form the foundation of the company's revenues each quarter.
Additionally, XP has seen unprecedented support from Microsoft's partners. There are now over 23,000 products designed specifically for Windows XP, available from over 700 partners. This is nearly three times the number of Designed for Windows logoed products that were available at XP's launch and more than twice the number of logoed applications than were available for any previous Windows version in the same timeframe.
Microsoft said on Thursday it would boost spending on research and development by 20 percent to $5.2 billion in the current fiscal year while increasing its work force by 10 percent. Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, said the software giant would make "aggressive" investments as it prepares to bet the company's future and its mainstay, the Windows operating system, on Web-based services. "We are increasing the level of investment for the future," Gates told a gathering of about 240 analysts. Gates said the software giant would add 5,000 employees to its 50,000-plus work force for the current year than ends in June 2003.
Spending for thousands of new workers and billions in investment dollars is needed to deploy .NET, Microsoft's over-arching plan to change the way information changes hands so that software and services no longer depend on individual computers. In his presentation, Gates outlined Microsoft's strategy over the next few years, saying the company would look to migrate customers over to Web-based computing and services in three phases over the next several years.
AOL Time Warner shares fell Thursday as worries of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry overshadowed the company's second-quarter profit. Immediately following its earnings announcement Wednesday, AOL Time Warner said that the SEC would be looking into its accounting practices in reaction to a critical newspaper report last week.
"After the (Washington Post) articles came out, the SEC informed us they are conducting a fact-finding inquiry," CEO Richard Parsons said, referring to a report in the newspaper that the AOL division boosted its online advertising earnings through questionable deals amid mounting indications that the company would suffer a collapse in ad revenue.
Microsoft plans to increase its research and development budget by 20 percent and hire 5,000 new workers in the coming year, Chairman Bill Gates said on Thursday. Gates, speaking at Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters, said the company's R&D budget will grow from $4.3 billion last year to $5.2 billion in fiscal 2003, despite the stagnant economy. "Because of our optimism (over) what the software can do in the decade ahead, we are increasing our investments," Gates said. Microsoft's employee base is "50,000 strong and growing," he said.
On the operating system front, Jim Allchin, group vice president at Microsoft, said Windows XP has now sold more than 46 million copies in the nine months since its release, making it the fastest-selling version of Windows ever. Microsoft says that XP has sold 230 percent more copies than Windows 95 and 160 percent more than Windows 98 for the same time period after their debut.
With the release of Windows .NET Server Release Candidate 1 (RC1) finally complete, Microsoft unexpectedly announced yesterday that the milestone build would be made available for free to customers through the Win.NET Server Customer Preview Program (CPP). Under terms of the CPP, customers can download or order CD versions of Win.NET Server Enterprise Edition RC1, which will expire 360 days after installation. Additionally, customers that choose the download option can access Win.NET Standard Server.
"This product is rock-solid," says Jim Allchin, group vice president of the Platforms Group at Microsoft. "We're delivering the features and improvements that our IT and developer audiences have told us they want most: improved security, greater reliability and better performance. Windows .NET Server is far easier to deploy, manage and operate, and it includes a comprehensive set of Web application services that make it easy to build powerful, connected solutions quickly. This is the most customer-driven release of Windows Server ever."
10. Microsoft drives computing costs down
With all the rhetoric surrounding Linux and its "free" status, it is often forgotten why consumers (Linux users included) pay so little for computer hardware these days. Not only have Microsoft's desktop efforts led to led to greater hardware economics of scale, the company has actively worked to drive down hardware prices through standard PC specifications, including simple things like the WinModem. Though WinModems drive Linux aficionados to distraction, the reason WinModems exist is that they cost less, saving consumers money on new PCs.
Microsoft has been instrumental in bringing computing to ordinary people
Although that might be a "negative" for those who don't want to be bothered by hordes of "newbies," non-technical computer users wouldn't be on the Internet if it weren't for handholding from companies such as AOL and, of course, Microsoft. Through its marketing and products, Microsoft has done more than any other company to help users find ways to integrate computing into their daily lives.
Heralding it as an important development milestone, Microsoft on Wednesday announced it will release tomorrow to beta testing its Windows .Net Server operating system, which company officials claimed will be "rock solid." Besides containing all the fundamental infrastructure features and capabilities of its predecessor, Windows 2000 Server, .Net Server Release Candidate 1 (RC1) also has some key building blocks from the company's .Net initiative, including the .Net Framework for developing and deploying exploitive applications and Web services. Microsoft concentrated on the features it thinks that its IT and developer audience want most: security, reliability, and enhanced performance, according to Jim Allchin, group vice president of the platforms group at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates provided some insight into the future of the .Net product line Wednesday here at a .Net Briefing day on the company's campus. In addition to announcing the availability of Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of .Net Server, Gates discussed a road map for .Net, including forthcoming products. Describing the path to the future release of the next generation of Windows, code-named Longhorn, as a "long-term approach," Gates reiterated Microsoft's position that XML is the foundation of its software development efforts.
Gates said Microsoft's .Net vision is designed to "break down barriers" imposed by the current generation of software. Noting that people still ask for the definition of .Net, he said its goal is to build "software to connect information, people, systems, and devices."
At Wednesday's .NET briefing, Microsoft announced that Windows .NET Server has reached the much anticipated Release Candidate 1 milestone after two and a half years of development. RC1 marks the final phase of testing before the new operating system is released to manufacturing late this year. Beta testers will be given access to the RC1 code starting tomorrow. Windows .NET Server is a significant upgrade over Windows 2000, with increased stability and performance in high-end business environments. More importantly, Windows .NET serves as the core to Web services on Windows and is essential to Microsoft fulfilling its .NET vision.
In a set of announcements concerning the .NET strategy, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Soft-ware Architect Bill Gates outlined a second phase for .NET. The next phase doesn't radically al-ter the core of the .NET strategy-building XML-based interoperability into Web services for devices of all kinds-but it does extend the strategy in new directions, and Microsoft has made clear that issues such as security and identity protection will play an increased role in .NET services.
"In just two years, we've gone from debut to delivery of the first generation of Microsoft .NET. It's incredibly gratifying to see both its technology and its value to customers proven in the mar-ketplace," Gates said, in a release summarizing the announcement. "The broad industry consen-sus around XML-based Web services gives us a tremendous foundation for breakthrough work in many areas. The focus of phase two of .NET is on software that creates connected customer experiences that transform the way people live and work." Gates also pronounced .NET as "the toughest software problem ever tackled," and cited companies that had rebuilt products around .NET services, including Citigroup, JetBlue, and Verizon.