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An add-on that Microsoft silently slipped into Mozilla's Firefox last February leaves the browser open to attack, Microsoft's security engineers acknowledged earlier this week.
One of the 13 security bulletins Microsoft released Tuesday affects not only Internet Explorer (IE), but also Firefox, thanks to a Microsoft-made plug-in pushed to Firefox users eight months ago in an update delivered via Windows Update.
"While the vulnerability is in an IE component, there is an attack vector for Firefox users as well," admitted Microsoft engineers in a post to the company's Security Research & Defense blog on Tuesday. "The reason is that .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installs a 'Windows Presentation Foundation' plug-in in Firefox."
The Microsoft engineers described the possible threat as a "browse-and-get-owned" situation that only requires attackers to lure Firefox users to a rigged Web site.
Numerous users and experts complained when Microsoft pushed the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) update to users last February, including Susan Bradley, a contributor to the popular Windows Secrets newsletter.
"The .NET Framework Assistant [the name of the add-on slipped into Firefox] that results can be installed inside Firefox without your approval," Bradley noted in a Feb. 12 story. "Although it was first installed with Microsoft's Visual Studio development program, I've seen this .NET component added to Firefox as part of the .NET Family patch."
What was particularly galling to users was that once installed, the .NET add-on was virtually impossible to remove from Firefox. The usual "Disable" and "Uninstall" buttons in Firefox's add-on list were grayed out on all versions of Windows except Windows 7, leaving most users no alternative other than to root through the Windows registry, a potentially dangerous chore, since a misstep could cripple the PC. Several sites posted complicated directions on how to scrub the .NET add-on from Firefox, including Annoyances.org.
Annoyances also said the threat to Firefox users is serious. "This update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for Web sites to easily and quietly install software on your PC," said the hints and tips site. "Since this design flaw is one of the reasons [why] you may have originally chosen to abandon IE in favor of a safer browser like Firefox, you may wish to remove this extension with all due haste."
Specifically, the.NET plug-in switched on a Microsoft technology dubbed ClickOnce, which lets .NET apps automatically download and run inside other browsers.
Microsoft reacted to criticism about the method it used to install the Firefox add-on by issuing another update in early May that made it possible to uninstall or disable the .NET Framework Assistant. It did not, however, apologize to Firefox users for slipping the add-on into their browsers without their explicit permission -- as generally the procedure for Firefox add-ons or extensions.
This week, Microsoft did not revisit the origin of the .NET add-on, but simply told Firefox users that they should uninstall the component if they weren't able to deploy the patches provided in the MS09-054 update.
According to Microsoft, the vulnerability is "critical," and also can be exploited against users running any version of IE, including IE8.
Software giant Microsoft has introduced "visual search" to its Bing search engine to try to further set itself apart from market-leader Google.
The new feature will allow users to browse results using pictures instead of text.
Visual search will initially concentrate on four main areas: travel, health, leisure and shopping.
"The whole concept is that the world of search is going to change," said Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi.
"There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search," said Mr Mehdi, the firm's senior vice president of online services.
'Search battle'
Microsoft unveiled the beta, or test version of the feature, at TechCrunch 50, a conference being held in San Francisco for start-ups to pitch their ideas to investors.
Google accounted for nearly 65% of all US searches last month
"Competition breeds innovation and this nice little battle between Google and Microsoft is having a huge benefit to consumers," said investor Ron Conway, who has previously put money into Google, PayPal and AskJeeves.
Microsoft launched Bing in May and promoted it as an improvement over Google's "10 blue links" for tasks like shopping and travel.
New figures by net analysts Nielsen said that Microsoft's share of U.S. searches rose to 10.7% in August while Google remained dominant with 64.6%. Yahoo, in second place, was used for 16% of searches.
In late July, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. signed an agreement to work together to better take on Google. It still has to pass anti-trust scrutiny.
At the launch, Microsoft claimed "Visual Search" allowed users to conduct certain searches faster than the "traditional image search" offered by rival Google and other search engines.
In a blog post, the company said a study it conducted found that consumers can process results with images 20% faster than text only results.
"It's like searching through a large online catalogue," Microsoft said.
As users enter search terms, a link at the top of the first page of results allows users to "visualise" what Bing has found.
Clicking on the link displays a gallery of related images.
'Money maker'
At the moment only a small number of topics will return a visual display. These centre around popular categories like entertainment, famous people, shopping and sports.
"I think in those isolated cases it's going to work very well and those are the areas where there is a lot of money," Don Dodge, Microsoft's director of business development told BBC News.
"There is a lot of advertising money for shopping, for travel and so on. So not only is it a better user experience but it's a better business model too," said Mr Dodge.
Even though the TechCrunch conference targets start-up companies which come to have their ideas evaluated by a panel of experts, Microsoft agreed to have the group rate its new product.
"This is a good paradigm but should be implemented in areas where the user needs images to get into what he's looking for," said Yossi Vardi, an angel investor known for investing in software, energy and mobile companies.
The panel was also jokingly asked if they would be interested in investing in the product and the company behind it.
"Bing has a real flair and, depending what you think of Microsoft, it is a great surprise," said Jason Hirschhorn, chief product officer for MySpace.com.
"The brand and interface its fun and tactile. Yusuf, you have my cheque," he joked.
"The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion" said Albert Einstein.
When we look at relationships and the course history takes the past seems like an illusion wondering if it ever existed. It was just the other day that Microsoft and Open Source were bitter enemies.
One a packaged software corporate giant driven solely by profits. The other completely driven by passion by a group of geeks not even under the same roof.
In 2001, Microsoft had said "Linux is cancer." A few years MS started decided to apply balm to heal the cancer and mend its relationship with Linux through its Open Source initiatives. Its 2009 now and Microsoft, the once closely guarded organisation is stripping its soul, literally, to woo Open Source by releasing 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability something not even Bill Gates could imagine 10 years ago!
In Perspective
Imagine if one fine day India and Pakistan decide to get together and exchange their nuclear documents for the common good of the citizens of the sub-continent. Sounds unbelievable, right?
Microsoft and Linux have been the same. Besides ideological differences in terms of software creation, ownership and distribution there must be rarely a common ground between them. Microsoft's Chief Steve Ballmer in 2001 had said, "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
Linus Torvalds, father of Linux OS, on the other hand, led a one man army and created an entire guerilla front of geeks separated by geography but bound by passion that in time became the biggest threat for the biggest organisation on earth, Microsoft.
Besides another major difference is the way the two create software. Microsoft's model is solely driven by profits. Linux's model is solely driven by passion. Microsoft writes 1 line of code and gets 1000 patents for it. Linux is written and distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that its source code is freely-distributed and available to the general public.
Microsoft - A confused organisation
Around 4 years ago things changed at Microsoft through its Open Source initiatives. What can be termed as a late reaction from a confused company that till recently was all against Open Source and GPL. Whether Microsoft was for Open Source or against it perhaps not even Microsoft was very sure!
In July this year came the biggest shocker from Microsoft. The once closed and highly guarded Microsoft decided to open 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community in the name of interoperability. In addition Microsoft also highlighted the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system.
What motivated Microsoft to do the unthinkable to get literally get into the heart of Linux kernel? Sam Ramji, senior director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, in a statement said, "The current economic climate has a lot of companies consolidating their hardware and software assets. Many companies are turning to Microsoft more frequently to help them succeed in a heterogeneous technology. So there's mutual benefit for customers, for Microsoft, and for commercial and community distributions of Linux, to enhance the performance of Linux as a guest operating system where Windows Server is the host."
And what was the objective of Microsoft doing this? Says Tom Hanrahan, director of Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center, "Our initial goal in developing the code was to enable Linux to run as a virtual machine on top of Hyper-V, Microsoft's hypervisor and implementation of virtualization."
The Linux View
From Linux side Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux Driver Project Lead, said "Microsoft's contribution is a good move for Linux. I'm pleased to see Microsoft working to build a better relationship with the Linux community. I think that this will be good news for users and organizations who want to see better interoperability between Windows and Linux."
If Microsoft opening was a surprise, the bigger surprise came from Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, "Microsoft hatred is a disease" said he.
Microsoft's Motivation - Greed or Interoperability
The big question is can Microsoft be trusted? What it couldn't do to Open Source all these years is this a new way of finishing Linux and making it obsolete.
There is a possibility. On the macro level Microsoft's Open Source could be to make Linux obsolete. Mary Jo in Zdnet says "Microsoft's goal is to convince OSS vendors to port their software to Windows. But Microsoft doesn't want OSS software to just sit on top of Windows; the company wants this software to be tied into the Windows ecosystem by integrating with Active Directory, Microsoft Office, Expression designer tools, System Center systems-management wares and SQL Server database."
Linus Torvalds has so far been very confident of Open Source and doesn't see Microsoft as a threat. Says he "I agree that it's driven by selfish reasons, but that's how all open source code gets written! We all "scratch our own itches". So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them."
He goes on to add "Does anybody complain when hardware companies write drivers for the hardware they produce? No. That would be crazy. Does anybody complain when IBM funds all the POWER development, and works on enterprise features because they sell into the enterprise? No. That would be insane. So the people who complain about Microsoft writing drivers for their own virtualization model should take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are being so hypocritical."
Microsoft's Interoperability Argument
It is also true the way business and governments are operating in mixed environments which include both Microsoft and open source applications. Interoperabilty does make increasing sense especially for enterprise customers.
The Last Word
Microsoft is a commercial organization and its objective solely is profit. Microsoft's biggest worry right now is Google, which it sees as its biggest enemy that maybe eating into its bottomline soon. Call it desperation but Microsoft urgently needs to get into newer markets and also tap cheaper talent pools. The Open Source may just be the right platform to piggyback and also get closer to a community IBM, SUN and Google have been wooing and using for years now. IBM, SUN and Google are also commercial organizations using Open Source talent pool. Will someone also question their motives on wooing Open Source?
College students used to complain about dining-hall mystery meat. Their new gripe? Puny e-mail inboxes
Students have been howling that school e-mail accounts are too small to handle their daily deluge of mail and attachments. To address that problem, a growing number of colleges and universities are outsourcing their e-mail. The companies swooping in to manage student accounts for free? Google and Microsoft. Like search, software and operating systems, campuses are a burgeoning battleground for the tech titans.
Google now manages e-mail for more than 2,000 colleges and universities, enabling students to transform accounts capped at 100 mb into Google-managed inboxes that allow for 70 times as much mail. Microsoft also provides free Web-based mail for thousands of schools, including colleges in 86 countries. Once colleges switch systems, students keep their .edu e-mail address while upgrading from stodgy campus access pages to speedier, sleeker Google (or Microsoft) log-ins.
Kirk Gregersen, senior director for Microsoft's Live@Edu program, says many schools that already rely on Microsoft software and services are comfortable expanding the relationship by letting Microsoft manage Web-based student e-mail.
Early adopters of Google, such as Northwestern, are lately being joined by Cornell, Georgetown and Temple, to name a few. Google's Apps for Education program has gained significant momentum as student tech demands mount and budgetary pressures strain campus IT departments. Handing the e-mail keys over to Google helps schools avoid costly server upgrades while capitalizing on Web-based e-mail's popularity among students. Eric Weil, managing partner for Student Monitor, a national college-focused market research firm, says the average college student has two or three personal e-mail addresses, and Gmail's popularity among students has doubled over the past two years.
In the 2008 national Campus Computing Project (CCP) survey, 42% of schools reported that they had already migrated or were about to migrate to an outsourced student e-mail service. Another 28% said they were considering switching. CCP founding director Kenneth Green says many of today's first-year students like to use the Web-based e-mail they grew accustomed to in high school, just as many stick to an existing cell phone number rather than get a new dorm number.
Brown University is among the legion of schools now testing Google-managed messaging. Brown Junior Sarah Bolling says she hopes her school Googlifies permanently because she gets about 300 e-mails a week and misses important class messages when her tiny 250-mb school inbox overflows. She's not alone. More than 60% of Brown students have already been forwarding their messages to Gmail accounts, says Donald Tom, Brown's IT support director. He says the switch could help reduce a planned multimillion-dollar expenditure to upgrade Brown's tech infrastructure.
Of schools in the 2008 CCP survey that reported having outsourced e-mail already, 57% said they had opted for Google, while 38% had partnered with Microsoft. In addition to e-mail, Google's free Apps for Education offering includes voice- and video-chatting capabilities as well as collaborative word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and website-creation software. Google Apps shed its beta, or trial, label in July, reassuring decision makers. Microsoft, which is refining its own Web-based Office software, grants every student 25 gb of free online storage space.
When Notre Dame hired out their e-mail to Google last year, the school saved $1.5 million in storage and other tech costs, says Katie Rose, Notre Dame's program manager for enterprise initiatives. Student e-mail satisfaction ratings rose 36% after the switch. Arizona State estimated that its savings with Google were $400,000 per year. Washington State University, meanwhile, expects to save about $100,000 by working with Microsoft.
What's in it for Google and Microsoft? Not revenue. Neither company charges for outsourced e-mail. In its contracts with schools, Google forgoes the $50 annual fee per user that it charges companies and promises not to impose ads on students or faculty. Microsoft makes a similar pledge.
Even if it doesn't boost short-term profits, Google hopes serving schools for free will help broaden acceptance for Web-based e-mail and software services, says Jeff Keltner, who heads Google's Apps for Education team. Keltner says administrators appreciate not just cost savings but security benefits. "They walk away saying my data is probably safer in Google's data center than anywhere I would house it myself," he says. "And they appreciate the advantages to having data in the cloud, rather than residing on phones or laptops, which are devices that tend to get lost."
Timothy Chester, chief information officer for Pepperdine University, which recently partnered with Google, says his staff is 20% smaller than it was three years ago. Taking advantage of Google's economies of scale means that his smaller team can focus more on improving the way computers are used for learning on campus. "We want our staff working more with students and faculty and less on the nuts and bolts of delivering technology."
Washington: A US judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the country in 60 days after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party. Microsoft Office, which includes Word, accounted for more than $3 billion in worldwide sales in Microsoft's most recent fiscal year and is used by literally millions of businesses and consumers for everyday tasks like word processing and making spreadsheets and presentations.
I4i, a Toronto-based software maker, has been battling Microsoft over an obscure patent related to XML or Extensible Markup Language. XML is a key software component of many websites as well as Word and other programmes.
Upholding a May 20 jury decision Tuesday, Leonard Davis, a federal district court judge in Tyler, Texas, banned the world's largest software from selling Word 2003, Word 2007 and future versions of the software that use i4i's technology without a licence.
The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay several hefty fines to i4i, including $200 million in damages and $40 million in "enhanced damages". "We feel vindicated with this result," said Michael Vulpe, who co-founded i4i in 1993.
"It is not a question of fear or pride or anything else," said Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i. "We're very respectful of Microsoft, but when you're in the right you have to persevere."
Microsoft plans to appeal. "We are disappointed by the court's ruling," spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a written statement. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."
Some of the biggest names in mobile technology are girding for battle against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) and iPhone creator Apple (AAPL).
Later this year, Google (GOOG) and partners that include handset maker Motorola (MOT) plan devices and features aimed at business users of mobile phones. Meantime, Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT) are joining forces in their effort to take share in the lucrative market for company-friendly smartphones.
The moves are aimed mainly at RIM, the U.S. leader in smartphones for businesses, and defending against a rising threat from Apple and Palm (PALM). In July, RIM accounted for 34% of smartphone sales in the stores of the largest U.S. wireless service providers, and it boasted the most popular smartphone on the market, the BlackBerry Curve, according to research by Avian Securities.
Microsoft and Nokia announced their offensive on Aug. 12, saying that beginning in 2010 they'll unveil features including tight security and syncing with other devices. The companies also said they'll work together to get other applications, such as Microsoft's Office productivity tools, onto cell phones, and that by working together they can make it cheaper for corporations to support smartphones for employees.
"Way Beyond E-Mail"
"This is a move targeted towards RIM," Ed Snyder, principal at Charter Equity Research, wrote in an Aug. 12 research report. The first fruits of the collaboration will debut in Nokia's E-series smartphones next year. "BlackBerry and RIM have taken a very prominent place [in the market] based on e-mail," Robert Andersson, executive vice-president for devices at Nokia, tells BusinessWeek.com. "What we are offering is way beyond e-mail."
Nokia says it will give corporate IT managers ways to support its smartphones for less than it costs to support BlackBerrys, by doing away with the need for some servers. "We are definitely confident we can deliver this in a more cost-effective way," Andersson says. Apples-to-apples comparisons are tough to make because Research In Motion offers a variety of service options, says Ronald Gruia, principal analyst at consultant Frost & Sullivan. RIM didn't respond to requests for comment.
The alliance marks the first time Microsoft will develop applications for phones based on rival mobile software, in this case Nokia's Symbian operating system, instead of its homegrown Windows Mobile. "We know customers want choice in the devices they select," Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice-president for Office at Microsoft, tells BusinessWeek.com. "This shouldn't be taken as in any way a lack of our commitment to Windows Mobile."
At the same time, Google has redoubled its push into the business market, also promising more features at a lower cost. Till now, the so-called Android operating system developed by Google and partners has been aimed mainly at consumers, but that's set to change. "Today, we don't support many enterprise applications, but in the future, I think enterprise will be a good focus for us," Andy Rubin, the executive pushing Android for Google, told news service Reuters on July 31.
Google's Offering Value
Outside developers have long offered business apps for Android devices, but Google plans to adapt existing applications, including e-mail and tools for creating documents and calendars, to Android-based smartphones, Rubin says. Google's offering may be cheaper than RIM's, Gruia says. "They'll have a very compelling value proposition, for sure," he says.
Google's enterprise push coincides with the release of several new Android-based devices from Motorola, Samsung, and HTC that may carry particular appeal to business users. In late 2009 the manufacturers will release the first Android-based devices that have the look and feel of the traditional BlackBerrys, with full Qwerty keyboards convenient for typing long e-mails, according to Avian Securities data. "One of the things we are waiting to see is a truly enterprise-class device that runs Android," says Will Stofega, a program manager at consultant IDC. "That could start a new competitive round. It has a lot of possibility."
Large business-software companies are looking to start supporting Android-based phones as well. Later this year, Good Technology, a rival to BlackBerry's "push" e-mail services, plans to release an Android app that will let IT managers manage Android-based handsets remotely. It will also let mobile users log in to a corporate network using a virtual private network (VPN). "Our goal…is to be able to go to the enterprise and say, 'You can have the same kind of experience with all mobile devices, so you don't have to stay with the BlackBerry,' " says Good Chief Marketing Officer John Herrema III.
Security Risks?
To succeed, Nokia, Google, and others will need to win over skeptical IT managers who have come to trust the BlackBerry and are leery of security risks posed by new systems. "Every time you add another service, you are adding additional complexity and risk," says Morteza Rahimi, chief technology officer at Northwestern University. "However, we don't really have much choice, because the value of these devices when they work right is tremendous. We are going to support all of [the devices]."
And even if they can't convince IT execs, RIM's rivals will certainly want to get the so-called prosumer, or the person who uses purchases for both personal and professional use. Today, fewer corporations are buying smartphones for employees, says Ken Dulaney, a vice-president at consultant Gartner (IT). Instead, consumers buy an increasing proportion of smartphones on their own, for both personal and business use, and ask their companies to support them later. Up to 60% of all smartphones purchased today are used for both personal and business functions, Dulaney estimates.
Consumers evaluate security and capabilities differently from IT managers. Many people have begun using Apple's iPhones for business purposes, for example, long before Apple began winning IT managers over. End-user demand eventually pushed many corporations to support the iPhone. Now, Nokia, Google, and Microsoft hope prosumers will work their magic with rival tools as well.
Microsoft has underlined support for its Internet Explorer 6 web browser, despite acknowledging its flaws.
The software giant said it would support IE6 until 2014 - four years beyond the original deadline.
Critics - some of which have started an online campaign - want the eight-year-old browser mothballed because they claim it slows the online experience.
"Friends do not let friends use IE6," said Amy Bardzukas, Microsoft's general manager for Internet Explorer.
"If you are in my social set and I have been to your house for dinner, you are not using IE6," she said. "But it is much more complicated when you move into a business setting."
"It's hard to be cavalier in this economy and say 'oh it's been around for so long they need to upgrade,'" Ms Bardzukas told journalists in San Francisco..
Web monitoring firms estimate that 15-20% of people still use IE6 to browse the web.
Enough is enough
Among those speaking out against IE6 is a group of more than 70 developers who have banded together to form a project called ie6nomore.
"Enough is enough," they implore on their website.
"We are passionate because we run a website and something like 10% of our users use IE6, but our web designers and developers have to spend a lot of time debugging for the platform.
"The other issue for us is that we have launched an API to let people build applications and while our goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to do this, IE6 is a barrier," Mr Solomon told BBC News.
In a blog post in response to such campaigns, the software giant said that while this issue is a simple one for technology enthusiasts, "the choice to upgrade software on a PC belongs to the person responsible for the PC".
"Many PCs don't belong to individual enthusiasts, but to organisations. The backdrop might be a factory floor or hospital ward or school lab or government organisation, each with its own business applications," wrote Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for the browser group.
"Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product."
"Best experience"
Despite the renewed commitment, Microsoft said it would prefer people to move to IE8, which it says comes with improved functionality and security
"We want people to have the best experience they can have on Microsoft software," said Ms Bardzukas.
"If people get frustrated with that experience and they say 'Microsoft stinks and IE stinks' and they're basing that on technology that was designed nearly a decade ago, well yeah that is concerning."
Industry watchers believe, that despite Microsoft's backing, IE6's days are numbered.
"IE6 will just die away anyway," said Harry McCracken, editor and founder of tech news site Technologizer.
"I only have around 7% of people who visit my site using IE6 and it will just dwindle away no matter what anyone does," he said.
Threat
Microsoft's touting of IE8 comes as browser competition intensifies.
The most immediate threat to Microsoft's 68% market share comes in the shape of Mozilla's Firefox - used by 22% of browsers.
"The competition Microsoft has to worry about right now is Firefox. Not just from a market share perspective but from an innovation perspective because their plug-ins work really well," Ronald Gruia, a principal analyst with Gartner told BBC News.
"In the future they have to look out for Google with its Chrome browser," he said. "The main concern there for Microsoft is the rise in cloud computing and software as a service. Google is becoming very effective at delivering applications in the cloud and therefore poses a huge threat to Microsoft."
"This is the best time to be a browser user because there is so much choice," agreed Mr McCracken.
"Almost anyone on the planet who uses the web uses Google and that gives them a powerful way to market Chrome. They started with the browser and now they have the Chrome operating system as an even more direct attack on Microsoft's core business.
"My guess is Mozilla is what it is and that battle is, in some way, over. Chrome doesn't have a huge market share at the moment, but if I was Microsoft I would be worried about Google making Chrome really big." said Mr McCracken.
Such issues did not seem to trouble Ms Bardzukas.
"IE is still the most broadly used browser in the world. We are focused and we are here to play."
"Clearly Google is a very strong technology company with a number of offerings across the internet space but beyond that, I don't have a comment on them as a browser vendor in particular," stated Ms Bardzukas.
Microsoft and Nokia announced an alliance to bring advanced business software to smartphones in an attempt to counter the dominance of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices and the growing threat from the Apple iPhone.
The partnership between the world’s largest software company and the largest mobile phone maker means that the latest online versions of Microsoft’s dominant Office suite of applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, will be available on a range of Nokia handheld devices.
The two companies, once fierce rivals in the mobile telecommunications business, expect to offer Nokia phones running Office sometime next year, targeting the lucrative business users market.
Robert Andersson, Nokia executive vice-president, said: “This is giving some of our competitors — let’s spell it out, RIM — a run for their money. I don’t think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now.”
The rise of smartphones, on which users can browse the web and edit documents and presentations on the move, have presented software makers and mobile phone manufacturers with a new market to conquer.
Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 6.1 per cent decrease from the second quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, the research company. Yet smartphone sales surpassed 40 million units, a 27 per cent increase from the same period last year, representing the fastest-growing segment of the mobile devices market.
Microsoft is looking to bolster its Office franchise, which is nearly ubiquitous on personal computers and is vital to its profits. The company is already planning to launch web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, expanding its reach to make it compatible with all leading browsers on both PCs and Macs.
Until now only phones running Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile software have been able to use Office fully.
The alliance may also counter Google’s moves into free online software, which has been aimed at Microsoft’s business customers.
John Jackson, an analyst at the wireless research company CCS Insight, said: “It’s clear Nokia and Microsoft are both facing competitive challenges, most notably from Google. It makes sense for these two companies to work together to see if they can pool their competitive strengths to try and counter some of this pressure.”
The alliance means that Microsoft’s new Office suite of applications could be available to a much wider audience. Nokia accounts for 45 per cent of smartphones worldwide, with about 200 million users, according to Gartner.
The two companies emphasised that the venture would not affect the future of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Symbian operating systems. Executives said that Nokia had no plans to make a Windows Mobile device.
The announcement builds on Nokia’s drive to optimise access to e-mail and other personal information with its Exchange ActiveSync feature.
Meanwhile, a US federal court ruled that Microsoft would have to pay more than $290 million (£176 million) in damages to i4i, a Canadian software company, for infringing a patent. The Toronto-based i4i, a privately held maker of software for manipulating documents, had claimed in a 2007 lawsuit that Microsoft knowingly infringed one of its patents. Microsoft said that it planned to appeal.
Lower charges may mean higher call costs
Forcing down wholesale network charges will not lead to lower phone bills, mobile phone companies including Vodafone and O2 have warned Ofcom, the industry regulator. Telecoms groups, responding to Ofcom’s proposal to potentially alter the way that mobile termination rates (the cost an operator pays to connect a call to a rival network) are regulated, believe that cutting the rates could lead to higher call costs and lower handset subsidies. The shift threatens to cost the industry hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue a year.
Microsoft and Nokia announced an alliance to bring advanced business software to smartphones in an attempt to counter the dominance of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices and the growing threat from the Apple iPhone.
The partnership between the world’s largest software company and the largest mobile phone maker means that the latest online versions of Microsoft’s dominant Office suite of applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, will be available on a range of Nokia handheld devices.
The two companies, once fierce rivals in the mobile telecommunications business, expect to offer Nokia phones running Office sometime next year, targeting the lucrative business users market.
Robert Andersson, Nokia executive vice-president, said: “This is giving some of our competitors — let’s spell it out, RIM — a run for their money. I don’t think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now.”
The rise of smartphones, on which users can browse the web and edit documents and presentations on the move, have presented software makers and mobile phone manufacturers with a new market to conquer.
Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 6.1 per cent decrease from the second quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, the research company. Yet smartphone sales surpassed 40 million units, a 27 per cent increase from the same period last year, representing the fastest-growing segment of the mobile devices market.
Microsoft is looking to bolster its Office franchise, which is nearly ubiquitous on personal computers and is vital to its profits. The company is already planning to launch web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, expanding its reach to make it compatible with all leading browsers on both PCs and Macs.
Until now only phones running Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile software have been able to use Office fully.
The alliance may also counter Google’s moves into free online software, which has been aimed at Microsoft’s business customers.
John Jackson, an analyst at the wireless research company CCS Insight, said: “It’s clear Nokia and Microsoft are both facing competitive challenges, most notably from Google. It makes sense for these two companies to work together to see if they can pool their competitive strengths to try and counter some of this pressure.”
The alliance means that Microsoft’s new Office suite of applications could be available to a much wider audience. Nokia accounts for 45 per cent of smartphones worldwide, with about 200 million users, according to Gartner.
The two companies emphasised that the venture would not affect the future of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Symbian operating systems. Executives said that Nokia had no plans to make a Windows Mobile device.
The announcement builds on Nokia’s drive to optimise access to e-mail and other personal information with its Exchange ActiveSync feature.
Meanwhile, a US federal court ruled that Microsoft would have to pay more than $290 million (£176 million) in damages to i4i, a Canadian software company, for infringing a patent. The Toronto-based i4i, a privately held maker of software for manipulating documents, had claimed in a 2007 lawsuit that Microsoft knowingly infringed one of its patents. Microsoft said that it planned to appeal.
Lower charges may mean higher call costs
Forcing down wholesale network charges will not lead to lower phone bills, mobile phone companies including Vodafone and O2 have warned Ofcom, the industry regulator. Telecoms groups, responding to Ofcom’s proposal to potentially alter the way that mobile termination rates (the cost an operator pays to connect a call to a rival network) are regulated, believe that cutting the rates could lead to higher call costs and lower handset subsidies. The shift threatens to cost the industry hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue a year.
Melbourne: Internet is growing in dimensions every second, so much so that there are more addresses than there are people on Earth, claims the team behind Microsoft's new search engine Bing. Bing has put the number of web pages at "over 1 trillion", while Google had earlier indexed more than one trillion discreet web addresses. The current global population stands at more than 6.7 billion, which means that there are about 150 web addresses per person in the world. And this could mean that if a person spent just one minute reading every website in existence, then he or she would be kept busy for 31,000 years, without any sleep. "An average person would need six hundred thousand decades of nonstop reading to read through the information," News.com.au quoted Bing as saying. Mark Higginson, director of analytics for Nielsen Online, said that the global online population had jumped 16 per cent since last year.
