November 16th, 2009

Microsoft makes available new high performance Windows Server test build

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:00 am

Categories: Azure, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Office 2010/Office 14, Red Dog, Resellers, System builders, Utility/cloud computing, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii"), Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, High-performance, Server, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Supercomputing, HPC Server, Leadership, Management

Microsoft made available on November 16 a code-complete beta of Windows HPC (High Performance Computing) Server 2008 R2 to selected testers.

The company made the announcement at the Supercomputing 2009 show in Portland, Oreg., where officials said they planned to provide all of the 4,500 or so of the attendees with the bits today. Microsoft also will be providing select testers with access to the downloadable beta via the Connect site today. Microsoft is expecting to release at least one more beta of HPC Server 2008 R2 before rolling out the final version some time in 2010.

HPC Server enables cluster supercomputing on x64 versions of Windows Server 2008 R2. The new release that is in testing is Microsoft’s third iteration of the product.

With the HPC Server 2008 R2 beta, testers can run the test builds of Excel 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, supporting the development and use of parallel and scalable applications, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft and its partners have been making a concerted effort to increase the appeal of its HPC Server product beyond the small segment of scientists and engineers who typically use supercomputers. Last week, Dell announced it would be the exclusive distributor of the Cray CX1 supercomputing workstation, which runs Windows 7 integrated with HPC Server on a single box.

“We’re trying to make HPC more mainstream and accessible” to more engineers, financial quants and others in a variety of large and mid-size organizations, said Vince Mendillo, Microsoft Senior Director of High Performance Computing. To do this, the team is focused on providing new tools and techniques making HPC Server easier to set up and deploy, Mendillo said.

When Microsoft introduced the first version of HPC Server, Linux dominated the supercomputing market. Since then, Microsoft has been making inroads in market share and performance. Last year, Microsoft added “thousands of customers in large scale organizations” for the product, Mendillo said. (He declined provide any more specific data.) Microsoft now has 159 independent software vendor partners developing applications for HPC Server, Mendillo added.

Because HPC Server is part of the overall Windows Server family, MIcrosoft will fold back into the core Windows Server codebase new developments made by the HPC team. Mendillo said that some of the new parallel enhancements in the new HPC Server release would likely be useful to the Windows Azure team, which is building MIcrosoft’s cloud-computing offering.

November 12th, 2009

Microsoft readies shared classroom server for 2010 debut

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:55 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows server

Tags: Server, Microsoft Corp., Teacher, MultiPoint Server, Microsoft Windows, Branding, Desktops, Operating Systems, Software, Marketing

Microsoft is growing its MultiPoint franchise, adding to its line-up in 2010 with a new MultiPoint Server 2010 product.

Windows MultiPoint — a product developed largely by Microsoft in India and which Microsoft officially unveiled in 2006 — enabled multiple users to access a single host computer. The product was geared toward students and teachers, especially those in developing countries.

Microsoft is changing the name of the original MultiPoint product to MultiPount Mouse SDK (software development kit).

In the first half of 2010, Microsoft will introduce MultiPoint Server 2010, which is a host-run operating system that enables multiple users to each run different applications from their own “user stations.”  The new server product is being developed in Microsoft Corporate Vice President Amit Mital’s organization, the Startup Business Group, which was formed when the former Startup Business Accelerator and Unlimited Potential Group teams were merged under Mital.

A spokesperson sent me the following positioning statement for the Server version of the product:

“Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 allows schools to provide independent computing to more students for the same budget. Teachers can assign and distribute work assignments based on each student’s level and need, or establish a consistent experience, depending on the needs of the class.”

Microsoft is touting the forthcoming MultiPoint Server as being designed for non-technical professionals, so they won’t need a consultant or administrator to set up and manage the system.

MultiPoint Server maps a USB 2.0 keyboard, mouse, and headset to a monitor to create a student station. Each station gets an individual Windows desktop. The teacher management interface is called the MultiPoint Manager and allows the management of desktops, student accounts, and student sessions, plus provides teachers with a way to distribute content to students’ desktops.

The MultiPoint Server product will be available through both OEM and Academic volume licensing channels, company officials said. At launch, it will be available in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 will have the same application requirements as Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2008 R2 (and is based on Windows Server 2008) officials said. The user stations in the configuration do not require an operating system of any kind on them. No word yet on pricing.

November 10th, 2009

Study claims netbook users dissatisfied with Windows 7. Are you?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:07 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7 Starter, Netbook, Microsoft Windows 7, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Another day, another Windows 7 study. The latest comes from Retrevo, a consumer electronics shopping site, which asserts that users aren’t keen on Windows 7 netbooks running Starter Edition.

In a blog post entitled “Is Microsoft Trying to Kill the Netbook Market?” Retrevo officials outline their findings, based on responses from 1,100 of its “users.” Among the claims are users aren’t aware of the limitations of Windows 7 Starter Edition (like no desktop personalization, no multimonitor support, no DVD playback). Retrevo said 54% of respondents would not be satisfied if their new Netbook only came with Windows 7 Starter Edition. XP Starter was a better choice, Retrovo’s respondents said.

While I do think Microsoft would like nothing better than for the netbook market to disappear, as it has put a serious dent in its Windows client margins, the rest of Retrovo’s findings seem off-base to me. (Example: Windows 7 netbooks running Starter will support the use of a DVD player via a USB port, contrary to Retrovo’s assertion that Microsoft killed that XP Starter feature.)

Whether you agree with Microsoft’s decision to continue to field lots of different Windows SKUs or not, I’d claim the company has been pretty clear for the past year that Windows 7 Starter was not going to be able to do everything. (Originally, it also was going to be crippled so it wouldn’t allow users to run more than three apps concurrently, but Microsoft removed that limitation earlier this year.)

Microsoft officials also have noted that PC makers can choose any version of Windows 7, including Ultimate, to preload on netbooks. Whether OEMs can cost-justify some of the pricier SKUs is another matter.

I’ve been shopping for a Windows 7 PC starting on October 22, the day they went on sale at retail. I’ve been impressed by the choice of Windows 7 netbooks I’ve found. Many come with Starter Edition; others I saw were preloaded with Windows Home Premium. Toshiba loaned me one of their Mini NB205-N330 netbooks running Windows 7 Starter. I’ve found it very responsive, portable and perfect for my basic daily  tasks (surfing the Web, posting to my blog, answering email, etc.).

Yes, I am a more educated consumer than many out there, so I know what a netbook running Starter will and won’t do. But two different salespeople at my local Best Buy were very clear with me about what Windows 7 starter netbooks would and wouldn’t do. I’m not implying that it’s been completely smooth sailing for PC users looking to move to Win7; Computerworld noted recently that some Dell and HP users who ordered upgrades to Windows 7 are having to wait considerably longer than they were led to believe for their upgrade disks.

I’d be curious what others in the market for Windows 7 PCs have found. Are retailers, PC makers, resellers savvy about the new PCs and upgrade deals out there? Are Windows 7 Starter netbooks good enough for you?

November 9th, 2009

Which should a small business choose: Windows Home Server or Windows Server Foundation?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:36 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Database, Exchange Server, Management tools, OEMs, Resellers, SQL Server, System Center, System builders, Virtualization, Windows Essential Business Server (Centro), Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows Small Business Server (Cougar), Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Windows Home Server, Small Business, Microsoft Windows, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

Until quite recently, Microsoft officials emphasized the “home” in Windows Home Server (WHS) when explaining how that product fit into its server line-up.

Last week, however, something changed. Microsoft officials added small office/home office (SOHO) users to its list of potential customers for WHS. On November 5, the WHS team posted a new blog entry entitled “Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO.” From that post:

“Don’t let the name Windows Home Server fool you into thinking that this product was created for home use only. A lot of the reasons that you would use Windows Home Server in your home are just as applicable to a small or home office. Windows Home Server provides a dependable and affordable way to organize and safeguard your work on up to 10 computers.”

Up until this point, Microsoft’s business-focused Windows Server family looked like this (with entry-level servers listed first):

• Windows Server Foundation
• Windows Server Standard
• Windows Server Enterprise
• Windows Server Datacenter

Other “specialty” versions include the Web Edition, Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server. (The latter two bundle together various Microsoft applications, like Exchange Server and SQL Server, with Windows Server.)

Microsoft delivered the first release of Foundation Server in April 2009. The R2 version of Windows Server Foundation is globally available (covering all countries in Western Europe, Central Eastern Europe, France, German and Korea and Middle East/Africa) as of this week. Like WHS, Foundation is primarily an OEM product. The first release of Foundation was available preloaded on servers from Dell, HP, NEC and Fujitsu. The R2 version will be sold by these same server vendors, plus IBM, Lenovo, Acer and local OEMs such as Wortmann (in Germany) Datateknik (Turkey) Lanix (Mexico), Positivo (Brazil) and NTT (Japan), among others, according to the company.

So which should a small business user choose: Foundation or WHS? The biggest difference seems to be in the number of users that are supported. Foundation scales up to 15, while Home Server only supports up to 10, company officials said. In addition, Home Server is also designed specifically as a media server, with storage and file backup features for movies, music and photos,” a spokesperson added when I asked for more information.

“Windows Home Server is for people who work and play at home,” said Eugene Saburi, General Manager in the Windows Server & Solutions Division. “And it’s still based on Windows Server 2003,” at this point, he said. “Windows Foundation is more of a general-purpose platform,” Saburi added. “You can install a line-of-business app on it.”

(There’s no official word on when Microsoft plans to upgrade WHS so that it is based on Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2. Maybe that’s “Vail” — which could be out next year if the latest rumors are right.)

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering when will the R2-inclusive versions of Windows Small Business Server and Windows Essential Business Server will be out, Microsoft officials aren’t saying. They are not talking about a month, a quarter or even a year (!) in terms of shipping commitments for these two products. Sigh.

One would think it wouldn’t take the Softies long to update the existing SBS and EBS products to include the “minor” Windows Server 2008 R2 update… but if they also include the new Exchange Server 2010 bits, it could take a bit longer. And if they wait for the SharePoint 2010 ones, the next releases might not be out until after mid-2010….

November 3rd, 2009

Microsoft to raise prices, add more high-end editions with SQL Server 2008 R2

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:04 am

Categories: Azure, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, Database, OEMs, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Resellers, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Windows server

Tags: Processor, Microsoft SQL Server, Server, Microsoft Corp., Datacenter Edition, Microsoft SQL Server Team, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Databases, Enterprise Software, Software

With the new version of its database due out by mid-2010, Microsoft is increasing its retail prices. It also is adding two new high-end editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 to its line-up.

Microsoft is planning to make the next Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of SQL Server 2008 R2 — which will be feature-complete — available later this month, but officials declined to specify a date. The timing is “aligned with” the public beta of Office 2010, which many are expecting around mid-month. Customers can sign up today for notification about the November SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP. Microsoft released a first CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 (codenamed “Kilimanjaro”) in August.

Microsoft went public with these details on the opening day of its PASS Summit, its SQL Server user group conference, on November 3.

The two new versions of SQL Server will be a Datacenter edition and a Parallel Data Warehouse edition (formerly codenamed “Project Madison”). The Datacenter edition builds on the SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise product, but adds application and multi-server management; virtualization; high-scale complex event processing (via StreamInsight); and supports more than 8 processors and up to 256 logical processors. The Parallel Data Warehouse version will be sold preloaded on servers as a data warehouse appliance. Using the DataAllegro technology Microsoft acquired in 2008, it will scale customers’ data warehouses from the tens of terabytes, up to one petabyte plus range, according to the company.

Microsoft isn’t increasing the Server/Client Access License (CAL) pricing — which is the primary way its customers buy SQL Server, officials said — with the new release. But the new SQL 2008 R2 retail pricing is as follows:

Standard: $7,500 (Per Processor), or $100/Server + $162/CAL (a $1,500 increase over SQL 2008 Standard)
Enterprise $28,800 (Per Processor), or $9.900/Server + $162/CAL (a $3,800 increase over SQL 2008 Enterprise)
Datacenter $57,500 (Per Processor), Not offered via Server/CAL (no previous version available)
Parallel Data Warehouse: $57,500 (Per Processor), Not offered via Server/CAL (no previous version available)

No pricing information was available for other R2 versions of SQL Server, including the Workgroup, Web and Developer, company officials said. For the four aforementioned versions, there will be discounts available for customers purchasing via volume licenses, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft’s SQL Server team has focused on pricing as one of its main differentiators from its database competition, especially Oracle, so any kind of price increase is a sensitive topic. Company officials said they hadn’t “adjusted” database prices since the introduction of SQL Server 2005. Microsoft is still not charging per core like Oracle does; instead, it charges per processor, which benefits users who run databases on multicore servers.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 3rd, 2009

Microsoft seeks to lure Salesforce, Oracle users with six months free of CRM Online

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:22 am

Categories: CRM Live/CRM Online, Channel, Corporate strategy, Dynamics CRM, Resellers, Systems integrators

Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp., Pricing Strategy, CRM, Pricing, Advertising & Promotion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing Research, Enterprise Software

Microsoft is getting more aggressive on pricing, in response to its competitors in the enterprise cloud application space.

On the heels of yesterday’s price cut for a number of Microsoft-hosted enterprise cloud service offerings, Microsoft is introducing a “free for six months” deal, in the hopes of attracting Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand users. The company also made all versions of its hosted  CRM offerings available for $44 per user per month (which includes offline support and 5 GB of storage). To qualify, customers must sign up by December 31, 2009.

(Just prior to today’s pricing announcement, Microsoft offered two versions of CRM Online: Professional (which was already $44 per user per month, and Professional Plus, which was $59 per user per month. Starting today, Microsoft is condensing these two into a single version that will have all the features of Professional Plus — including the offline Outlook access — and selling that single version for $44 per user per month.)

Here’s the competitive pricing chart Microsoft is touting as part of the new promotion:

More fine print around the six-months-free offer: The deal is good in the U.S. and Canada only. Users must have a minimum of five seats and a maximum of two-times the number of seats subscribed to under Oracle or Salesforce. After six months, the price goes to $44 per user per month for 12 months.

Microsoft announced the new promotion on November 3. Microsoft also began rolling out today the November 2009 service update for Dynamics CRM Online, its third update in the past 18 months. The rollout will be complete by November 15, company officials said.

The update includes several new features, which existing customers get for free, including:

• Enhanced data import via an “Import Data Wizard”
• A new “Get Started” pane providing guidance, training and access to Knowledge Base articles
• Faster online access. Users can get started with a trial or paid subscription to CRM Online in less than five minutes, according to Microsoft
• Free mobile access for any device running an HTML 4.0-compliant browser

I’d be interested in hearing from Oracle and Salesforce users if the new Microsoft deal and pricing is tempting — and if not, why not.

November 2nd, 2009

Microsoft chops prices of its hosted enterprise cloud offerings

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:28 pm

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Office, Office Live, Resellers, SharePoint Server, Speech, Systems integrators, Telecommunications, Utility/cloud computing, VOIP, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Cloud Computing, Tools & Techniques, Office Suites, Software, Management, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is cutting prices of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, as well as its suite of business services (known as the Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and is refunding the difference to existing hosting customers.

Microsoft is cutting its Exchange Online pricing from $10 per user per month to $5 per user per month. It also is cutting the price of the BPOS bundle — which includes SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting — from $15 per user per month, to $10 per user per month.

Microsoft is leaving the pricing for its Deskless Worker versions of its hosted Online offerings the same. Exchange Online Deskless Worker and SharePoint Online Deskless Worker remain $2 per user per month. The bundle of the two Deskless Worker offerings stays at $3 per user per month.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft officials didn’t attribute the price cut to competition from Google Apps or other hosted offerings. Instead, they attributed the cuts to “rapid customer adoption, global scale and improved efficiencies from new software such as Exchange Server 2010″ (according to the press release).

Microsoft is making BPOs available in 15 new countries before the end of the year. Later this week, BPOS will be commercially available in Singapore; trials are slated to begin in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan. Commercial availability in India is also expected later this year, officials said.

Microsoft officials are now claiming to have more than 1 million paying users for Microsoft’s Online family of services (not counting Live Meeting, for which there are many more paying customers, according to company officials). Newly signed BPOS customers include Hofstra University, Lions Gate Entertainment, McDonald’s Corporation, Rexel Group, Swedish Red Cross and Tyco Flow Control.

Microsoft will be adding a paid, Microsoft-hosted version of Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote– to its Online stable next year. Company officials have said that paid offering will also be available to Microsoft volume-license customers so that they can host Office Web Apps themselves, on-premises, instead of or in addition to allowing Microsoft to host it for them. There will be additional (and, as yet, still unannounce) features that will be part of the paid Office Web Apps offering that aren’t part of the free, ad-funded version.

Microsoft is currently rolling out refreshes to its Online family of services every 90 days or so, according to Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Online. Some of the new features the company is rolling out to its on-premises software — such as Exchange 2010 — are debuting in the hosted, Online offerings before they are available to customers as server-based products. (The final Exchange 2010 software bits are slated to go to customers starting next week.)

I’m sure Microsoft customers will be upbeat about the price cuts for Microsoft’s hosted offerings. But I’d think Redmond’s partners who are trying to make money from selling Microsoft’s hosted services (if not their own hosted version of Microsoft’s wares) might be less enthusiastic…

October 30th, 2009

Microsoft to drop Office Accounting product, services

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:28 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Network service providers, Office, Resellers, Systems integrators

Tags: Accounting, Small Business, Microsoft Corp., Office Small Business Web Site, Microsoft Office, Operational Accounting, Financial Services, Office Suites, Software, Finance

Starting November 16, Microsoft is ending distribution and sales of its Microsoft Office Accounting product. Company officials began notifying customers of the decision on October 30.

All Microsoft Office Accounting products in the UK and North America are affected by the decision, including Office Accounting Express, Office Accounting Standard, Office Accounting Professional, Office Accounting Professional Plus, Office Accounting 3-user and Small Business Accounting.

Here’s the back story as to why, according to a statement e-mailed to me by a company spokesperson:

“After evaluating the product over the past few years we have determined that other Microsoft offerings such as free templates in the Office system used with Excel and the Dynamics product are able to meet our customers’ needs. The Office Small Business web site has links to free templates for small businesses, such as invoices, expenses, time sheets, budgets and more and Microsoft’s Small Business Center is also a great resource for small businesses.”

Microsoft officials said that existing Office Accounting customers will get five years of mainstream, free support and five years of extended, paid support. Those who recently bought the product can return it for a refund within 30 days of purchase. (Details on how to return the activation key are here.)

The add-on services that are part of Office Accounting, including online sales from eBay and credit profile from Equifax, will no longer be available after December 15, 2009. The credit-card-processing services and service allowing users to order compatible checks and forms are still going to be available, however. In addition, according to a Frequently Asked Questions document on Microsoft’s Web site, “your customers will still be able to pay emailed invoices directly through PayPal.”

In the UK, as of October 30, Microsoft parter Mamut is taking over product support for Microsoft Office Accounting users. From an update sent to me by Mamut:

“In addition to receiving ongoing customer support from Mamut, current users of Microsoft Office Accounting will be offered a free upgrade to Mamut Business Software solutions. Microsoft will no longer distribute Microsoft Office Accounting in the UK as of November 16, 2009, but Mamut will continue to invest in product development and services to ensure an easy transition for the approximately 100,000 registered users of Microsoft Office Accounting in the UK.”

Update: Microsoft is not disclosing how many total existing customers it has for Office Accounting. (I asked.) I also asked Microsoft whether it has a U.S. support partner in the wings and received this response from a spokesperson:

“Microsoft is considering possible partnership opportunities for qualifying ISV partners in the US; however, we do not have anything to announce at this time. For small businesses, free templates in the Microsoft Office system can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Excel. Mid-sized businesses have the option of using the Microsoft Dynamics ERP products.”

Microsoft has discontinued a number of its consumer and small-business offerings in recent months. In June, Microsoft said it was discontuining Microsoft Money. It also has dropped its Digital Image Suite and Encarta from its line-up.

October 28th, 2009

Microsoft's Windows 7 challenge: Selling Live services (without being sued)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:57 am

Categories: Advertising, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows client

Tags: Antitrust, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Corporate Law, Operating Systems, Software, Business Operations, Mary Jo Foley

I was wondering how aggressively — or not — Microsoft would market Windows Live services once it began selling Windows 7.

The answer seems to be somewhat aggressively. But is that tepid enough to keep the Softies out of antitrust hot water?

For more than a year now, Microsoft has been pulling certain features out of Windows and making them available as free “rich” services. The suite of these services is known as Windows Live Essentials (WLE) and includes Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, Messenger and Mail.

Although Microsoft officials take care to avoid saying that removing features and offering them separately might be motivated in any way by the threat of antitrust suits, I’d think this would be one (big) definite upside for the WLE strategy/approach. The downside (for Microsoft) around this decoupling is that the company needs to find ways to get users to understand that these functions are available for free download, or, in some cases, preloaded by PC makers on new machines.

I asked Microsoft officials how they intended to let consumers know about the existence of Windows Live Essentials (WLE), a bundle of several Windows Live services meant to complement Windows 7, and received via e-mail this list of “ways we are educating consumers about the offering”:

• The most recent version of Windows Live Essentials (WLE) can be downloaded from download.live.com
• Most large OEMS will ship WLE on Windows 7 PCs.  For example, we have already announced that Dell will ship WLE on its machines, and we expect to announce other specific partners in the coming months.
• Windows.com and Microsoft.com both include information on WLE and where to go to download it
• Windows 7 users can find a link to download (download.live.com) WLE within the Control Panel.  An easy way to find this link is who search to type Windows Live Essentials into the Start Menu search bar
• We offer WLE as an Optional Update through the Microsoft Update program
• Customers who are enrolled in Windows Update will receive automatic upgrades to any WLE applications they have installed on their PC
• WLE is highlighted in the Getting Started experience within Windows for new PC purchasers

One way Microsoft also is getting the word out, which company officials didn’t mention, is by featuring WLE on new “Signature” PCs that are sold through Microsoft’s own Store.

As Todd Bishop over at TechFlash noted recently, the Windows 7 PCs that Microsoft is highlighting on the Microsoft online store come with a number of Microsoft software and service offerings — including WLE — preloaded. (The Signature PCs also include Microsoft Security Essentials, Silverlight, Bing 3D Maps, Zune 4.0, plus a few select third-party wares, like Adobe Flash and Reader.) Signature PCs include systems from Sony, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and other vendors.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Microsoft push WLE more than through some rather vague mentions by Microsoft spokesperson of the year, the now-five-year-old Kylie. But maybe the specter of looming antitrust busters is keeping the Softies from going all-out with a splashy WLE campaign.

Do you think any of the ways Microsoft is promoting WLE — including the new Signature PCs –might leave open loopholes for Microsoft’s competitors to run screaming to the authorities?

October 23rd, 2009

Ballmer: Zune services coming to 'next release' of Windows Mobile

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:58 am

Categories: Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, Mobile services ("Pink"/"Rouge"), OEMs, Resellers, Windows Mobile, Zune

Tags: Phone, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Zune, Engadget, Microsoft Corp., Pink, Mobile Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really made the rounds on October 22 to help kick off Windows 7. One stop he made was the Engadget Show, which was taped live in Times Square.

Ballmer was a lot more direct than Microsoft Entertainment and Device Division President Robbie Bach, when it comes to answering questions about Microsoft’s mobile and device strategies. (Not a high bar, given Bach’s reticence to even acknowledge the existence of anything codenamed “Pink.”) Ballmer did offer a few tidbits during the show yesterday that I found interesting, though still somewhat cryptic.

In response to Engadget’s questions on when the Zune music and video services will come to Windows Mobile, Ballmer said Zune services would definitely be available in conjunction with the next Windows Mobile release.

But as the folks over at the MobileTechWorld blog note, that answer is still somewhat murky. Microsoft is strongly believed to be readying a 6.5.x or 6.7 release of Windows Mobile, which many are expecting the company to release on or around the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010. That release supposedly enables Windows Mobile to work on capacitive touch-screen phones. Microsoft officials continue to refuse to say if and when that release will be coming.

Engadget also asked Ballmer about the photos of the Pink phones (codenamed Turtle and Pure) that were leaked on Gizmodo last month. Are either of these the rumored Microsoft-branded phones that many of us heard are — or at least “were” — in the works?

“We are not shipping, pricing  or selling phones. As of today, that’s not our plan,” Ballmer told Engadget’s Josh Topolsky yesterday.

This is a more definitive statement than Bach or anyone else at Microsoft has made about the rumored Pink phones. (As I’ve noted previously, Microsoft officials have been able to wriggle out of repeated questions about whether Microsoft is planning to make its own phone because Microsoft doesn’t actually “make” any hardware. Other vendors make it for the Redmondians.

With Pink, most recent rumors seemed to indicate that Sharp was the company making the Pink phones that Microsoft and Sharp were considering they’d cobrand. Ballmer’s new statement still leaves a lot of wriggle room, but it also leads me to believe there’s a good chance that Microsoft’s phone partners may have complained so vociferously about Microsoft being involved in branding/distributing its own phones that Pink may be back to nothing more than a bunch of premium services for Windows Mobile phones. (That’s what I initially heard Pink was, before I got more tips indicating Pink also was the codename for a Microsoft-branded phone, as well.)

What’s your take? Has Microsoft scrapped plans to cobrand a phone aimed at teens and 20-somethings? And when will Zune come to the Windows Mobile platform — in early 2010 with an interim release or not until Windows Mobile 7?