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Business software makers, with the exception of industry titan Microsoft Corp., are in the summer of their discontent and this week's earnings reports will underscore that view, analysts said. Analysts expect Microsoft's sales for the quarter ended June 30 to be resilient, thanks to strong corporate demand ahead of a change in its software licensing practices that made up for weak PC-related sales. They also noted that products from the world's No. 1 software company, which also is set to report results this week, are relatively inexpensive compared with those from vendors such as Siebel or SAP. "With the exception of Microsoft, we're going to see a fair amount of weakness and a lot of uncertainty," Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Charles Di Bona told Reuters.

Determined to revive interest in its high-end server ambitions, Intel's Itanium 2 launch has reopened the door for enterprises to migrate away from expensive RISC-based servers. Targeted at database environments, ERP systems, scientific computing installations, and business intelligence networks, the processor unveiled this week boasts 3MB of Level 3 on-die cache and a one and a half to two times performance increase above its Itanium predecessor, generally considered to have missed the mark as a high-end 64-bit alternative to RISC chips.

Itanium 2 has received backing from a host of server vendors, including Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Unisys, IBM, Hitachi, and Fujitsu Siemens, paving the way for Microsoft's Windows OS to enter the ultra high-end computing space tightly held by Sun's UltraSparc-based servers, IBM's Power-based systems, and HP's and Compaq's RISC-based servers.

Los Angeles Microsoft on Saturday offered a glimpse of the next version of Sharepoint Portal Server boasting improved collaboration capabilities. Known as Sharepoint 2.0, the product will have close technical ties to Microsoft's Office 11, not due until mid-2003, as well as a new product called Small Business Server codenamed Bobcat, also due to ship next year. The product will also include Sharepoint Team Services 2.0, which Raikes showed off during a keynote at last month's TechXNY conference in New York. Playing to the reseller and systems integrators attending the keynote, Rakes said the upcoming version will include templates designed specifically so partners can more easily customize right out of the box. Microsoft has sold over seven million seats of Sharepoint over the course of its first year of availability, Raikes said.

Focused on pursuing wireless computing opportunities, Microsoft plans to expand its vertical industry offerings in the health care and finance industries over the next year, according to a company official. Microsoft is positioning its Smartphone and PocketPC Phone 2002 platforms as key weapons in its wireless communications arsenal as part of its mobile drive, said Juha Christensen, corporate vice president of Microsoft's mobile devices division, speaking on Saturday at the Fusion 2002 partner conference. "This is a fantastic call to action," he said.

At the center of Microsoft's wireless efforts is its Visual Studio.Net platform. The company is focused on including wireless devices in its .Net computing vision, Christensen said. Key to Microsoft's wireless product efforts are its Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition and its forthcoming Smartphone software platforms for wireless devices. Both support data and telephony, although the Smartphone resembles a cell phone more closely than Pocket PC, which is run on PDA devices.

Sources said that a 2.80GHz Pentium 4, which, as we reported last week was pulled forward from the fourth to the third quarter by Intel, is now expected to be launched in a few weeks. This is a further indication that Intel is storming ahead with its 130 nanometer process, we'd say. It means that it's more likely than ever that we'll say 3GHz Pentium 4s, and perhaps even higher clock speeds, before the end of the year. The price of the 2.80GHz processor at launch will be $637, as we reported at the beginning of this month. The 2.6/2.66GHz processors will cost $562 and that will mean the rest of the processor family prices will slide to prices below. We don't have an exact date for the launch of the 2.80GHz processor yet - we'll bring that to you as soon as we receive confirmation of its introduction.

A man who claims that it's a nightmare to make GNU/Linux work on his desktop PC has gone back to using Microsoft Windows software after a three and a half year struggle to make it work. Collins says that while having access to the latest kernel might be a great thing for developers, for home users "it can be a nightmare". Hardware vendors don't provide single drivers that work on all versions, and also don't want to dish out the source code, for fear of revealing how their hardware is made. Mr Collins has now switched back to Windows software, and uses Windows XP. Like Microsoft CEO Steve "Fester" Ballmer, he believes this is the best and most stable OS Microsoft has ever made.

On Monday, Microsoft will reveal that its next-generation Windows Media products, code-named Corona, will be marketed as Windows Media Series 9 when released later this year. Windows Media Series 9 consists of new versions of Windows Media Player, Windows Media Audio and Video codecs, Windows Media Encoder and a new Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK). Each of these products will be available in beta form to the public beginning September 4, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hosts a Windows Media Series 9 launch event at the Hollywood and Highlands Complex in Los Angeles, California.
Here's the new Windows Media Series 9 logo

With more than 4,000 of its systems integrators and business partners in attendance at its annual Fusion conference Friday, Microsoft officials took the opportunity to urge them to be more aggressive in going after the $1 billion integration market using its .Net development environment to create Web services.

Parthasarathy said the best integration solutions Microsoft can offer integrators and partners will revolve around a Web services architecture, and the best way to create that architecture is through the .Net development environment. ".Net is the best way to implement a Web services architecture because .Net is an ingredient in all of Microsoft's products. And that ingredient being built in is Web services that will help our products to work well together as well as with those of our competitors," said Parthasarathy.

Peru's President Alejandro Toledo will travel to Seattle this weekend for talks with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates during which he will sign accords to support his Huascaran Internet-for-schools project, a government spokesman said. Toledo, who announced a Cabinet overhaul on Friday to try to revive his flagging government, will travel to Seattle on Sunday and meet Gates on Monday, the spokesman said. Toledo will fly home on Tuesday. Officials say Plan Huascaran has provided about 100 schools in Peru with Internet service and teaching tools. The government aims to increase that number to 5,000 schools by the end of Toledo's term in 2006.

Microsoft is kicking off its Fusion 2002 conference in Los Angeles with a bang Friday, heralding plans to infuse its partner programs with a cool $500 million. The investment, which will be rolled out in phases over two years starting next July, represents a 50 percent increase over last year's annual spend on partner development and support, according to Microsoft officials. The money will be allocated across three areas, including hiring more field reps to work directly with Microsoft partners; developing new Web-based training tools and the eLearning Center; and boosting the amount and types of partner support. Microsoft plans to allot 20 percent of the money toward the headcount increases, including a $4 million shot in the arm for partner account manager training. Close to 30 percent of the investment will be sunk into Web-based training, including the eLearning Center, which features 11 online courses to date.