Microsoft profit up 60% to 6.7bn
Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday that the company’s earnings in the most recent quarter jumped as mush as 60 per cent. The earnings have reportedly been boosted by the rebound in personal computer sales.
During the holiday shopping season back in 2009, the sales of PC industry bounced back after almost a year long rough sales.
Microsoft’s earnings have been closely tied to computer sales because its two most profitable divisions make the Windows OS and the Office business software.
Microsoft’s net income for the second financial quarter, ending Dec. 31, rose to USD 6.7 billion as compared to the USD 4.2 billion in the year-ago period.
The company revenues grew 14 per cent to USD 19 billion.
The revenue from Windows grew 70 per cent as the latest version of Windows, called Windows 7, was released during the quarter.
Microsoft sets prices for forthcoming Office 2010
Microsoft Corp. will sell four versions of the forthcoming Office 2010 software for prices ranging from $99 to $499.
The product is slated to be released in June.
The software giant announced on Tuesday that it will be selling the Office Home and Student edition, which comes with four core programs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, for $149. This can be used on three computers in the home.
The ‘Product Key Card,’ which has a code to unlock one copy of Office 2010 is pre-loaded on new PCs, costs $119.
The education-only version from Micrsoft, Office Professional Academic, is available for $99. In addition to the core programs, the academic version comes with the Outlook email program, Publisher for desktop publishing and the Access database software.
Office Home and Business, which includes Outlook along with the four core programs, will cost $297.
Microsoft issues Word patch
In order to comply with the US court’s ruling that it infringed on patents relating to the use of XML in its flagship word processing software, Microsoft Corp. issued a patch for its Word software.
Earlier, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word programmes containing the infringing code from Jan 11, 2010. The court also ordered Microsoft to pay USD $290 million in damages.
The ruling came when Microsoft appealed against a Texas jury verdict last August that found Microsoft guilty of violating the patents owned by Canadian software company i4i Inc.
In the court documents, the three-judge court panel said, “A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant’s infringing acts.”
It added, “The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy.”
Microsoft made the patch available to the computer makers to install on new machines preloaded with the Word software and strips Word and other Office programs of custom XML editing capabilities.
Microsoft banned from selling Word
Upholding the patent-infringement charges by a small Toronto firm against Microsoft, the US appeals court ordered the world’s largest software giant to stop selling MS Word by Jan 11, 2010. Microsoft Corp. was also asked to pay $290 million in damages.
The world’s largest software giant, Microsoft said it will introduce the copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007 without the offending technology before the ordered deadline.
This ruling from the court upholds an earlier ruling that found Microsoft guilty of infringing patents and ordered the giant to stop selling its Word software. This ban was imposed by a Texas court in August when a Toronto software firm i4i accused Microsoft for stealing its patented technology. The court also ordered Microsoft to pay USD 290 million in damages to the firm.
Microsoft soft challenged the ruling in the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld the verdict and gave Jan 11th 2010 as the deadline to the software giant.
Bing app for iPhones hits App Store
Microsoft has revealed that a Bing application for Apple’s hyped iPhone has hit the virtual shelves of its longtime rival’s online App Store.
At a launch celebration sin San Francisco, Bing for Mobile product manager Justin Jed remarked, “We like everybody and the key thing is what platforms and experiences users want and how to meet their needs.”
This free f cost application from the world’s leading software giant, Microsoft, allows the iPhone users tap on an icon to search the Internet using Microsoft’s newly launched Bing technology.
Earlier, the versions of mobile Bing software for the Blackberry devices, manufactured by the Canada-based Research In Motion, and smart phones based on Microsoft’s windows Software were shipped about a week ago.
“We think mobile Web and mobile services are a huge behavioral experience that customers are going after. If users want to interact with the Internet on their mobile, we are going to be there to hang out with them,” Jed added.
Microsoft launches redesigned map search with apps
Microsoft Corp. will soon be releasing the updated version of its mapping service with street-level views and new ‘app’ that tack on tweets, traffic and other location-specific data.
Released on Wednesday in a beta test mode, the new version of Bing Maps, offers slicker technology allowing the users to easily zoom in more smoothly from the high-up graphical map to the close-up views showing actual streets from a pedestrian or driver’s viewpoint!
With the successful launch of this version of Bing Maps, Microsoft corp. will make an attempt to match Google Inc. in sending cars with cameras down streets to capture images of every block. However, Microsoft as of now is offering this in 56 U.S. cities only while Google, an experienced player that the company is, has hit all 50 states and expanded the feature overseas as well.
Microsoft has also applied the use of lasers to scan the buildings and construct a three-dimensional map of those cities, also allowing the users to ‘walk’ inside! Microsoft said eventually more apps from outside developers will be made available.
Australia, Canada approve Yahoo!-Microsoft deal
Australian and Canadian competition authorities have approved the Internet search and advertising partnership between Yahoo! and Microsoft as per the companies’ announcement on Tuesday.
In a joint statement released by the two companies, it was announced, “Microsoft and Yahoo! have been notified that Australian and Canadian authorities have separately concluded their reviews and have no objections to our proposed search agreement.”
The statement further added, “We continue to believe that this deal will create a true, competitive alternative in the marketplace that will benefit consumers, advertisers and publishers. We remain hopeful that the agreement will close in early 2010.”
The agreement however, remains subject to review by US anti-trust regulators.
Google, Yahoo zero in on Internet ‘freedom’ bill
Leading search engine company Google Inc. and several other Internet companies including Yahoo! have zeroed in on a flexible effort by a Republican lawmaker to pass the ‘freedom bill’. The bill challenges their ability to take a different approach to operating in ‘repressive’ foreign countries.
Google Inc., Yahoo1 and also Microsoft Corp. including several others have been focusing on lobbying efforts on the bill, touted as the ‘Global Online Freedom Act of 2009.’
This curbs the freedom of the companies which have been trying to do business in countries such as China where widespread and expanding Internet access is subject to censorship and political repression. Google specially has struggled to compete in China, lagging behind the local competitor Baidu in terms of Internet search market.
China bars some MS Windows versions
Microsoft Corp has been ordered by a Chinese court to stop selling versions of its MS Windows operating systems (OS) that include fonts designed by a local company. The violation of licensing agreements has been mentioned as the primary reason for the same.
The ruling, issued by Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court on Monday, signals an open challenge for the many of the international software makers struggling with piracy in China.
Predicting more lawsuits could be filed by the various local companies, Michael Vella, head of China litigation and intellectual property rights at Morrison & Foerster LLP, said, “Chinese firms are going to think of China as a place to have their own litigation strategy, I think that’s a trend that’s coming.”
As of now, Microsoft will have to stop selling the Chinese versions of its Windows 98, 2000, 2003 and Windows XP, according to the court ruling. It is unclear when the ruling will take effect or how many copies are affected.
Bing gains search market share, nears 10 pc
Good news for Microsoft as the software giant’s attempt to gain internet search market got a new boost on Tuesday!
Microsoft’s new Internet search engine Bing increased its share of the US search market in October, close to almost 10 per cent!
This was the fifth month in a row of modest gains in search share for Bing, which Microsoft unveiled in June accompanied by a 100-million-dollar advertising campaign in a bid to challenge search king Google Inc.
Bing’s share of the lucrative search and advertising market increased by 0.5 per cent in October to 9.9 per cent. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s search partner, saw its market share decline 0.8 per cent in October to 18.0 percent.
Meanwhile, Google also added half-a-point in October to reach 65.4 per cent. Other minor search engines like, Ask.com was unchanged at 3.9 per cent while AOL.com lost 0.1 per cent to 2.9 per cent.
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