Let’s take a trip back in time. The year is 1994, and two tech giants are going to war over copyright. They are Microsoft and Apple, and they are fighting over a copyright claim by Apple over Microsoft and HP’s use of graphical user interface elements from the Macintosh OS. The resulting court case, Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, ended with a ruling in Microsoft’s favor, mostly due to a contractual license agreement between the two.

The matter was never fully settled by the case though. Instead, negotiations that took place several years later resulted in the two companies agreeing to make Internet Explorer Mac’s default browser. Microsoft also agreed to keep developing Office for the Mac. Most importantly though, Microsoft invested $150 million into Apple to keep it afloat.

This series of events, which happened while Steve Jobs was being reinstated as the CEO of Apple, set the stage for what is happening today between Microsoft, Apple, and Google. While Microsoft and Apple are still bitter rivals, several recent events have inadvertently brought them closer together in order to fight their common enemy: Google.

The phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind. Let’s explore how we got to this tipping point.

Android: Google Enters Apple’s Turf

When Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple’s Board of Directors in 2006, the move made perfect sense. Here’s what Apple said about Eric in its original announcement:

“Eric’s 20 years of experience as an Internet strategist, entrepreneur and technologist give him a well-seasoned perspective which perfectly complements Google’s needs as a young and rapidly growing company with a unique corporate culture.”

At that time, Google wasn’t in mobile, hardware, operating systems, or browsers. Now Google is directly competing with Apple through the Nexus One, Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and even possibly in the tablet computer space.

It all started with Android, though. Back in August 2007, details began to leak about Google building a mobile OS or even a GPhone. It turned out to be Android, the open-source mobile OS that is now the fastest growing smartphone OS on the market.

At first, Android didn’t pose much of a threat, but as more phones utilized the software, the relationship between Google and Apple became very uncomfortable. Eric Schmidt sat out board meetings discussing the iPhone due to conflict of interest, but the relationship only eroded from there.

Watershed Moment: Eric Schmidt Resigns from Apple’s Board

Tensions between the two companies grew worse after Apple rejected Google Voice as an app on the iPhone.

The resulting FCC inquiry, along with an FTC investigation and the announcement of Google Chrome OS were just too much. On August 3rd, 2009, Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors.

In retrospect, this was the moment when Apple, Google, and the rest of the world realized that the two companies could no longer be allies. Google’s expanding interest outside of search was pouring over into Apple’s domain on multiple fronts. With the search giant free of its Apple association, it could go all-out on its agenda to bring more people onto the web for longer (read the Google Revenue Equation to learn why).

The culmination of the breaking of the Google-Apple alliance? It was the release of the Nexus One, a direct competitor to Apple’s lucrative iPhone.

Recent Events: Apple and Microsoft Talk Bing

Yesterday we learned that Apple and Microsoft are in talks to make Bing the default search engine for the iPhone. While we’ve heard this rumor before, the talk seems to be heating up. Most of our readers expressed their dismay or shock over the potential deal, some questioning why Apple would ever team up with Microsoft over Google.

Really though, the deal makes perfect sense, given the new competitive landscape. Earlier today, Jim Goldman at CNBC provided some interesting new information on the dynamics of the Apple-Google-Microsoft relationship. According to his source, Steve Jobs hates Eric Schmidt (it wouldn’t surprise us) and Microsoft is offering a bigger cut of iPhone search revenues than Google.

While Microsoft and Apple’s relationship grew cold after the Redmond, WA company bailed Apple Computer out, it never vanished. Moreover, Steve knows that he can work with Microsoft, especially if it helps Microsoft hurt Google.

Android has become the de-facto alternative to the iPhone OS, and the Nexus One is closest thing yet to a smartphone that can stand up to the iPhone’s dominance. While Microsoft and Apple are still in competition over Mac vs. PC, Apple clearly believes that its future isn’t just in computers, but in other Internet devices such as the iPhone and the fabled Apple Tablet. Microsoft poses far less of a threat in these areas than Google does.

It’s time to call it: Google is now Apple’s greatest enemy. Soon Google will be entering its OS turf with Chrome OS. Apple increasingly sees Google as a major competitor over the next few years. While the company Steve built doesn’t particularly like Microsoft, it knows that it has to work with the lesser of two evils in order to succeed.

Say hello to the new dynamic. It’s Apple + Microsoft vs. Google. May the new battle begin.

Tags: apple, bing, business news, Column, Google, google search, iphone, microsoft, Opinion, social media, trending

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The rumor mill is churning today around a device that is not the Apple Tablet, for once. This time it’s Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft’s promised next-generation smartphone mobile operating system.

The idea of a “Microsoft Zune Phone Experience” has been floating for some time, and according to All Things Digital that rumor has been circulating anew. Microsoft is allegedly working on a mysterious project codenamed “Pink” that vaguely involves Windows Mobile and the Zune, MS’s portable music playing answer to the iPod.

To congeal all the rumors together, the analysis seems to suggest that Project Pink, a.k.a. the Zune Phone Experience, would theoretically be Microsoft’s answer to the Nexus One by Google: a phone developed with a heavy amount of direct input from its parent company. AllThingsD’s sources indicate that phone could debut as early as mid-February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona or possibly one month later at the CTIA wireless trade show in Las Vegas.

Windows Mobile 7: Two Editions?

Meanwhile, WM Experts have compiled a number of Windows Mobile 7 (supposedly to be referred to officially as simply “Seven”) tidbits, perhaps most importantly the reported plan to offer at least two separate editions of the mobile operating system. A Business Edition (BE) would support cloud syncing with multiple devices, including your home or office PC.

A Seven Media Edition (ME) is rumored to include more Zune-like features, such as a similar media player, HD video, possibly streaming TV, Xbox Live integration, Facebook and Twitter interfaces (similar to what is already live on the Xbox 360), and support for Silverlight and Mediaroom. The support for Xbox Live dovetails nicely with some earlier job postings from Redmond looking for new hires to bring the XBLA experience to the Windows Mobile platform.

The Million-Dollar Question: When?

It would make sense for Microsoft to finally integrate what are primarily three separate experiences and divisions: Windows Mobile, the Zune and the Xbox. That kind of synergy could be exactly what the company needs to steal back some of the thunder it’s slowly lost to new smartphone platforms like the iPhone, and now, increasingly, Android. Still, all signs point to a long wait until we see Seven running on any production device — perhaps as late as 2011.

With the Mobile World Congress and CTIA events just around the corner, though, we’ll hopefully get some more clarity on all the above, plus a better sense of the timeline we’ll be looking at for WinMo7. Are you a current or past Windows Mobile user? What should Microsoft do to come out swinging in the next version of its mobile OS?

[img credit: WM Power User (please note they are leaked screenshots and may not represent the final version of Windows Mobile 7)]

Tags: CTIA2010, microsoft, MWC2010, Project Pink, Seven, windows mobile, windows mobile 7, winmo7, xbla, xbox, Xbox 360, XBox live, zune, Zune Phone, zune phone experience

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HP seems to be on a roll this days as the company is announcing one product after the other. The hottest of them all should be the much anticipated Microsoft tablet, the Courier, which has been developed by Redmond together with HP.
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Although it seemed like an obvious fit, for whatever reason Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division and its Windows Mobile division have heretofore been kept at arm’s length. Given competitor Apple’s roaring success with the iPhone as a portable gaming platform (recently winning our reader poll against Nintendo and Sony), and Microsoft’s comparative lack of a portable gaming strategy beyond a fledgling gaming focus for the Zune HD, this sector has been a hole waiting to be filled for some time.

Now that’s finally going to start happening, according to a recent job posting in Redmond, WA. The Principle Program Manager’s primary responsibility will be to further the following mission: “connecting players via the LIVE services on new devices beyond the console. We need a Principle Program Manager who can help drive the platform and bring Xbox LIVE enabled games to Windows Mobile.”

Another listing for a software test engineer focuses on mobile gaming as well. It seems clear Microsoft is finally making a push to get into the sector, certainly with the Windows Mobile platform and presumably with the Zune HD as well. The multi-device, multi-platform situation in the Microsoft camp will be a challenging one to simplify for consumers, and it will be interesting to see whether the company attempts to consolidate app marketplaces and content stores or whether devices will remain tethered to separate silos.

Will the Xbox Live Marketplace seamlessly integrate with the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and will the Zune HD get a more proper app store or be able to tap into either of the other two marketplaces? It sounds like Microsoft is hiring some management whose task it may be to answer some of these questions. However it works out, Xbox LIVE gamers may look forward to seeing more of the XBLA console experience finally take root in Microsoft’s mobile division, at long last.

[via Engadget]

Tags: gadgets, gaming, microsoft, video games, windows mobile, xbla, xbox, XBox live, zune hd

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The inevitable has happened! Microsoft has lost its appeal against i4i, a Canadian company that holds the patent over some XML code that has been used by Redmond in the creation of Word 2007 and Office 2007.
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Originally posted at The Digital Home

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For decades, Microsoft has been a technological giant that nobody can ignore. This year has been a unique one for the Redmond, Washington-based company. It announced layoffs and revenue shortfalls, both rare occurrences in the company’s 34+ year history.

With Google breathing down its neck and Apple posting record profits, Microsoft decided to use 2009 to strike back and go on the offensive.

From the launch of Windows 7 to the rise of Bing and the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, here is a review of the key events, trends, and products that shaped Microsoft in 2009.

Microsoft’s Early 2009 Struggles

For the first five months of the year, Microsoft wasn’t making a lot of news, and when it did, it wasn’t good. While Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, painted a rosy picture of the company’s future with his Consumer Electronics Show keynote speech on January 7th, 2008, Microsoft was struggling with negative sentiment against Windows Vista, a European Union investigation against bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, and the first major layoffs in the company’s history.

There were a few small product partnerships and events that occurred during the first few months of 2009, especially in terms of social media. For example, Microsoft partnered with MySpace on Windows Mobile and Silverlight and announced Microsoft Recite, a mobile notetaking application.

Microsoft also started cutting the fat, and not just in terms of layoffs. It closed some long-standing but obsolete projects such as Microsoft Encarta and Flight Simulator.

Internet Explorer 8

The biggest release Microsoft made during the first three months of 2009 however was Internet Explorer 8, the newest edition of its popular web browser. With the help of random celebrity endorsements, social media, vomiting ads, and its reach with Microsoft Windows, IE8 has reached nearly 20% market share.

Overall though, IE has been on the decline while Chrome, Safari, and Firefox have all been growing. Couple this with the backlash against IE6 (still the world’s most popular browser) and Google’s release of Chrome Frame for IE, and you get a mixed picture of the future of IE.

Currently, Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 9, which is focused on adhering to the world’s web standards and improving IE’s speed.

2009’s Turning Point: Bing

While the release of IE8 was important, it was nothing compared to the search bombshell that Microsoft had up its sleeve.

For years, Microsoft has tried to take down Google at its own game. However, MSN, Live Search, and all of its other attempts failed to make a dent in Google’s market share. Instead of choosing to fade away into web search obscurity in 2009, Microsoft decided to double down with one of the biggest bets in the company’s history.

At the end of May, it was revealed that Microsoft was launching a new rival to Google called Bing. Bing was not only a rebranding of Microsoft search, but Microsoft’s reinvention of the search engine. Bing Maps, Twitter integration, Visual Search, and other innovations were central to the Bing experience, and to Microsoft’s adoption strategy.

Microsoft’s plan to spur adoption for Bing (and take people away from Google) was simple: first, they’d create and change perceptions about both Google and Bing by utilizing ad campaigns and community outreach. Second, they’d drive trial and bet that the Bing experience would make people stick around.

The ad campaign was tremendous. They held a Bingathon, ran innovative TV ads, and bet big on Twitter, which all paid off — at least in the beginning. In its first month, Bing became bigger than Digg, Twitter, and CNN. From there, Bing kept growing. Microsoft’s success was so pronounced that Google even assigned top engineers to study Bing and reacted to its moves.

Microsoft and Yahoo

Bing’s launch was only the first part of Microsoft’s plan to take down Google. After Microsoft failed to acquire Yahoo last year, the tech giant explored other options for beating Google on its own turf, including ones involving Yahoo. In April, reports surfaced that Microsoft still wanted to partner with Yahoo.

As it turns out, those reports were true. In July, Microsoft and Yahoo signed a pact that gave Microsoft control of Yahoo Search in return for a 10 year revenue share agreement favoring Yahoo. While the deal won’t take effect until 2010, it has essentially given Microsoft another 15-20% share of the search market.

Microsoft has set the stage for 2010 to be an epic battle between Bing and Google search. Still, we have to wonder: can Microsoft actually make inroads into Google’s domination of search, or will it be the same story as before?

Competition on Multiple Fronts

Microsoft not only renewed its competition with Google in search, but it opened up new battles with its major rivals on multiple fronts. In July, Microsoft decided to directly address the threat posed by Google Docs with Microsoft Office 2010, which will include access to a web-based version of its popular office suite.

The tech giant also launched an assault on its other major rival, Apple, which has been steadily making inroads into the computer and OS markets. In July, Microsoft struck back against Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads with its Laptop Hunters campaign, which portrayed PCs are more versatile and cheaper than their Apple-made counterparts.

Not only that, but Microsoft went after Apple’s stronghold on the portable MP3 player market with the September launch of the Zune HD. It’s also taking a pre-emptive strike at the fabled Apple Tablet with the foldable Courier Tablet. It even opened Microsoft Stores to compete with Apple’s strong retail presence, going so far as to steal Apple Store employees.

Much like Bing, it will take a year or several years to know whether these campaigns and new products will be successful in defeating Microsoft’s sworn enemies. Nobody can say, however, that Microsoft didn’t try everything to bury its competition in 2009.

Windows 7

Throughout all of these events however, Microsoft had a glaring black eye that everybody could see. Windows Vista, whose many problems and poor sales numbers threatened Microsoft’s stranglehold on the OS market and even its position as a kingpin of technology. With Apple’s Snow Leopard and Google’s Chrome OS breathing down its neck, Microsoft couldn’t afford another OS failure.

The company bet the farm on Windows 7. They had extensive ad campaigns and Windows 7 launch parties to build up the hype that this thing was fast, sleek, simple, and not Windows Vista.

It paid off. Windows 7, released on October 22nd, garnered positive reviews and in fact beat Vista’s initial sales by 234%. Microsoft needed a hit, and as of the end of 2009, Windows 7 has delivered. Its impact on the bottom line is still unknown, but it’s likely that Microsoft will have strong momentum heading into 2010.

What’s Next?

Microsoft was busy in 2009. Bing, IE8, Windows 7, and Microsoft Office 2010 were just a few of the many big projects it launched this year. While we don’t expect to see as many big game-changing products coming out of Redmond in 2010, we do believe that the battle between Microsoft and its competitors will heat up as these products mature and Microsoft pushes to make inroads into search and beyond.

We want to know what you think, though. How did Microsoft do this year? What was its greatest success and its biggest flop? And most importantly, what do you think the technology titan will be doing in 2010? Let everybody know your thoughts in the comments below.

Tags: apple, bing, Google, microsoft, zune

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Of course the iPhone app is not the first mobile experience Bing has offered. There is already Bing for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Sidekick and select BREW-based devices on Verizon.

Key features of the iPhone app include:

- Daily image from Bing.com
- Easy to access voice search
- Tips and tricks on the home page
- "Locate Me" functionality
- Ability to add pushpins and save locations
- Show multiple locations on a single map

"Our investments in voice search (you may have played with them on Windows phones or BlackBerry already) continues in our iPhone App and works great for map locations as well as old fashioned web search," says Justin Jed of Bing for mobile. "Just say ‘San Francisco weather,’ for a quick result, or even say a full address for a map or directions.  Try something complex, like ’1 Microsoft Way, Redmond 98052.’ (Yes, I know how to get to work.) Hold the phone to your ear and speak, or press the mic button—simple."

"Speaking of directions (ha), looking for a coffee shop nearby? Bing automatically finds your location," adds Jed. "It’s also easy to discover a new spot by category such as restaurants, banks, theaters and choose whether you want walking or driving directions."

The infinite scrolling of Bing’s image search is said to translate well to the iPhones’s interface. There are apparently a lot more features that Microsoft isn’t going into detail about, as they would rather have you just download the iPhone app and find them for yourself.

There’s no word from the company on when an Android app might become available.
 

Related Articles:

> Microsoft Addresses Search Privacy

> Mozilla Exec Moves To Bing’s Corner

> Bing Gets a Bunch of New Search Features

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• Microsoft will deliver a complete product at launch date : Millions of users will praise the stability, usability and overall performance of latest software coming from Redmond.
• Tom from Mypace will get a Twitter AND  a Facebook account: Tom will join Twitter AND Facebook after loosing all his friends on MySpace.
• Teleport Machines will be available to the general public: Techcrunch and Mashable will start a series of rumors about Apple having one but the rumors won’t come true (Just like with the Apple Tablet)
• The “Fail Whale” will be a memory: Twitter’s uptime will be 100% and “Fail Whale” screen shots will be shown at the Tate Gallery in London
• Celebrities abandoning Twitter : After rounding up thousands of followers, following just 12 people and start being criticized  by users no celebrity will close their twitter account and make declarations to the press about how much “twitter sucks”. All of them will actually make the effort to engage and use it properly.
• Rupert Murdoch will get it: Rupert Murdoch, in a global press conference that will also be seen at the ISS, will apologise to everyone and will start being a strong advocate of open source content and creative commons.
• Apple will start getting along just fine with its competitors: The Cuppertino based company will announce  that will open its technology and will encourage competitors to copy its products and spread the iAPPLE Love
• Britney Spears’ Bots will cease to torment Twitter: From one day to the other they will be gone. Forever. Really! Forever. Two days later George Michael’s spam bots will start to torment Twitter.
• The Rolling Stones will end their career: In a move that will leave the entire globe saddened the Rolling Stones will announce the end of their career after making a tour with Lady Gaga. They will then return in 2011 and make a disco-funk release!
• FOX News will be fair in the way they treat the news: Advertising will drop, Sarah Palin will host the “Palin sayzit like it is” to atract a younger audience and advertising will still drop. By December 2010 Fox News will start to be biased again.

This are my predictions of what will NOT happen in 2010. What are yours? Please let me know!

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Microsoft is playing catchup in the cloud realm. Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) have both been running live cloud-computing offerings for over a year and have gained considerable traction with Internet companies and IT organizations seeking to avoid the limitations of physical servers, hardware maintenance and static bandwidth contracts. The big surprise that Ozzie unveiled, however, wasn’t technological. It was actually a customer: Automattic, the hot software and blog hosting company that is behind the highly popular WordPress platform.

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As much as some Windows Mobile lovers will defend their Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets I imagine they’re waiting for the real thing just as much as the rest of us. Windows Mobile 7 is everyone’s fantasy, including Microsoft. Redmond has admitted in the past that it would have liked to have Windows Mobile 7 out sooner but that wasn’t possible.
(more…)

See: Windows Mobile 7 Gets Confirmed by Microsoft [Official Announcement Expected for March 2010]

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Vladimir Vukićević was working at the Mozilla office when Firefox was first released into the wild.

“All of our servers melted instantly,” Vukićević says. “We spent an hour trying to get the downloads back up.”

Indeed, the anticipation around the release of Firefox 1.0 on November 9, 2004 — five years ago Monday — was electric.

Mozilla had already produced its own eponymous browser based on open source code in 2002, but it was largely considered a failure. Firefox was the organization’s great re-do, and its second attempt to unseat its biggest nemesis, Microsoft Internet Explorer.

A half-decade later, Firefox is no longer a scrappy upstart but a dominant player. Old rival IE still commands around 60 percent of the market share, but close to a quarter of the web now uses Firefox — a formidable number which speaks to its success as an open source project. At a time when nobody wanted to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft, thousands of disparate programmers rose to the challenge, landing Firefox on the short list of other open source triumphs like Wikipedia, Ubuntu Linux, WordPress and the web itself.

Successes aside, Firefox is now at a tipping point.

Five years ago, it was all about beating Microsoft. Left unchecked, the company was free to dictate what shape the web would take. Firefox’s popularity created a new market for web standards and forced Redmond to take open web technologies seriously.

Now, Firefox faces a bigger struggle. It needs to continue to innovate and remain relevant in an ever-changing, and ever-more-competitive, landscape.

“When it was just us and Microsoft, the story was very simple — it was the little guy versus the giant,” says Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner, who oversees Firefox’s development. “Now you’ve got heavy hitters like Microsoft, Google and Apple all competing, which make the stories a lot more interesting.”

The web itself has changed significantly in the last five years, as well. It’s no longer just a network of connected documents, but a full-fledged platform filled with real applications that run in the browser and share data with one another.

“It’s hard to cast your mind back and think about what the internet was like in 2004,” says Beltzner. “Five years ago, there was no Google Maps. Gmail was very new. All these things — applications that are now parts of the web that we would never think couldn’t be there — were just not there. Most of the reason was that browsers weren’t yet being designed with all of these advanced capabilities.”

Firefox was one of the first browsers built for this new web filled with applications. As a result, it gained favor with developers and users. But it also encouraged fiercer competition.

“It’s not just that the platform has changed, there’s a whole ecosystem of great browsers now,” says Mozilla’s Johnathan Nightingale, manager of the Firefox front end features team.

We’re in the middle of the second great browser renaissance, and Firefox is no longer the sole leader. Feature-wise, Apple’s Safari browser is neck and neck with Firefox. Internet Explorer is catching up quickly. In September of 2008, Google released its Chrome browser. Much like Firefox, it arrived with a huge fanfare and quickly proved to be the web’s new golden child — simpler, faster, better than everyone else.

Along with Chrome, Google launched a public relations campaign highlighting the benefits of using its browser to run web applications like Gmail and Google Docs. Google’s PR push underscored the importance of things like browser performance and speed among developers and the general public alike.

In short, Google brought sexy back to the browser.

“One of the things Chrome did is make the way everybody communicates about browser development more energetic and public,” Vukićević says. “Before Chrome, we were doing a lot of really interesting things, but we were having a hard time communicating that.”

Nightingale agrees that since then, Mozilla has gotten a lot better at building up excitement around new features in Firefox. The company has launched a Hacks blog that shows demos of all the latest technologies, and it posts videos — sometimes as many as three or four per week — showcasing the innovations coming out of its experimental Labs office.

“Compared to the world that just had IE6 in it, we’re able to generate excitement about what we offer much more clearly,” Nightingale says.

In response to the increased interest in new technologies, Mozilla has stepped up its release schedule, too. The wait between Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 was close to two years — a eon in web time.

“When Firefox 3 neared completion, people were tremendously angsty that it was such a superior experience to Firefox 2, yet we hadn’t shipped it yet,” Nightingale says. “That’s what stung the most. There were all these great features and we weren’t ready to give it to people yet. We had to change that.”

Mozilla took another year to push out Firefox version 3.5, which arrived this past June. But now, the team is committed to delivering a new release every six months. Firefox 3.6 is due by the end of 2009.

“We can’t have another two years where we’re sitting on awesome stuff that the rest of the world doesn’t get to have,” Nightingale says.

Another cause for angst around the release of Firefox 3 was its abundance of features, which some users saw as unnecessary bloat. Version 3 fixed many of the stability and performance problems of its predecessor, but Firefox’s transformation from 2004’s svelte browser to today’s full-bodied machine was only made more obvious by Chrome’s debut as a bare-bones speed demon.

Still, Chrome’s arrival has put increased support for open web technologies on everyone’s roadmap. The next versions of Firefox will continue down that path.

At the top of the list for Firefox’s future is better support for HTML5, the set of technologies — already heavily supported by Firefox, Chrome and Safari (but not IE) — that define how web pages are built and how web applications function. Also, Mozilla has thrown its weight behind two open source technologies, the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) and the Ogg Theora video format. Both enable new methods for displaying fonts on web pages and for playing videos in the browser which don’t rely on proprietary technologies like Microsoft’s Silverlight and Adobe’s Flash and AIR.

This commitment to tools that let developers build better web experiences without using plug-ins was one of the project’s core principles when it was first launched.

According to Nightingale, openness will continue to play a key role in shaping the browser’s future.

“We always ask, ‘What is it that people on the open web can’t do right now? What’s pushing them towards things like Adobe AIR and Silverlight, or other technologies that are single-vendor silos?”

When a developer loses the ability to view a web page’s source code (something you can’t easily do in Flash) they can’t see how web applications and complex interactions function. And, he says, that stymies further experimentation.

“The web is going to be an awesome place to innovate in five years because we’re going to chase down every awesome development in the proprietary world and make sure it happens on the open web as well. If we fail, then we’ll end up in a place that’s less recognizable than the web today, a web filled with a bunch of internet-delivered Flash executables.”

See Also:

• Firefox 1.0 Makes Flashy Debut
• More Firefox Bloat? Say It Ain’t So, Mozilla
• Mozilla Pushes the Web Forward With Firefox 3.5
• How Firefox Is Pushing Open Video Onto the Web
• Fennec Fits Everything You Love About Firefox Into Your Pocket

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Todd Bishop wrote late last night (or early this morning, to those of us a few time zones east of Seattle and Redmond), "We’re hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week . . ."

As for the size of the cuts, Bishop then continued, "This latest round of layoffs is expected to be noticeably smaller than the first two — numbering in the hundreds but totaling less than 1,000 overall."

Still, morale among Microsoft’s employees isn’t likely to get much of a boost as a result.  Since many analysts believed that both the economy and the company were doing better these days (the Dow’s risen 6.21 percent in the past three months, while Microsoft’s stock has gained a whopping 18.05 percent), they may have expected the era of layoffs to be over.

Perhaps Google’s Matt Cutts should extend to some Microsoft engineers the same job offers he lobbed in Yahoo’s direction.

UPDATE: The elimination of 800 jobs has been confirmed.

Related Articles:

> Google Ranked World’s Most Attractive Employer

> Yahoo Snags Microsoft Sales Exec

> Matt Cutts Extends Offer To Yahoo Engineers

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But applications that cost $5 or more? Outrageous! Highway robbery!

This is all very strange, as a guy who is used to spending at least $30 for software of any consequence whatsoever. I love supporting my fellow software developers with my wallet, and the iPhone App Store has never made that easier.

While there’s an odd aspect of race to the bottom that I’m not sure is entirely healthy for the iPhone app ecosystem, the idea that software should be priced low enough to pass the average user’s “why not” threshold is a powerful one.

What I think isn’t well understood here is that low prices can be a force multiplier all out of proportion to the absolute reduction in price. Valve software has been aggressively experimenting in this area; consider the example of the game Left 4 Dead:

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell announced during a DICE keynote today that last weekend’s half-price sale of Left 4 Dead resulted in a 3000% increase in sales of the game, posting overall sales (in dollar amount) that beat the title’s original launch performance.

It’s sobering to think that cutting the price in half, months later, made more money for Valve in total than launching the game at its original $49.95 price point. (And, incidentally, that’s the price I paid for it. No worries, I got my fifty bucks worth of gameplay out of this excellent game months ago.)

The experiments didn’t end there. Observe the utterly non-linear scale at work as the price of software is experimentally reduced even further on their Steam network:

The massive Steam holiday sale was also a big win for Valve and its partners. The following holiday sales data was released, showing the sales breakdown organized by price reduction:

• 10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped)
• 25% sale = 245% increase in sales
• 50% sale = 320% increase in sales
• 75% sale = 1470% increase in sales

Note that these are total dollar sale amounts! Let’s use some fake numbers to illustrate how dramatic the difference really is. Let’s say our hypothetical game costs $40, and we sold 100 copies of it at that price.

If this pattern Valve documented holds true, and if my experience on the iPhone App store is any indication, we’ve been doing software pricing completely wrong. At least for digitally distributed software, anyway.

In particular, I’ve always felt that Microsoft has priced their operating system upgrades far, far too high — and would have sold a ton more licenses if they had sold them at the “heck, why not?” level. For example, take a look at these upgrade options:

Putting aside schoolyard OS rivalries for a moment, which one of these would you be more likely to buy? I realize this isn’t entirely a fair comparison, so if $29 seems as bonkers to you as an application for 99 cents — which I’d argue is much less crazy than it sounds — then fine. Say the Windows 7 upgrade price was a more rational $49, or $69. I’m sure the thought of that drives the Redmond consumer surplus capturing marketing weasels apoplectic. But the Valve data — and my own gut intuition — leads me to believe that they’d actually make more money if they priced their software at the “why not?” level.

I’m not saying these pricing rules should apply to every market and every type of software in the world. But for software sold in high volumes to a large audience, I believe they might. At the very least, if you sell software, you might consider experimenting with pricing, as Valve has. You could be pleasantly surprised.

I love buying software, and I know I buy a heck of a lot more of it when it’s priced right. So why not?

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In an unexpected turn of events, Microsoft has decided not to go through with the Windows 7-dedicated Family Guy episode. Am I the only one to notice what a bad decision this is? Has Redmond lost it all of a sudden? Not only was it going to be a unique concept, but this advertising strategy might have worked very good in Microsoft’s favor.
(more…)

See: Family Guy Not to Sell Windows 7 Anymore [Microsoft Pulled Out; November 8 Show Still on Track]

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His e-mail:

In his mail describing why he created a separate Canvas 2D API specification, Doug Schepers wrote [1]:

> There is a chance that currently Canvas could be a blocker on progress
> for the HTML5 spec, and at this point, Canvas is so widely implemented
> that I don’t think it’s at risk, so I hope this isn’t disruptive. I am
> available to help with any editing that needs doing, but I hope that
> others will also work with this draft, and step into the editor role.

At Microsoft, we agree with the sentiments expressed by Doug, Maciej [2], and others about creating a separate Canvas 2D API specification. [3] We are prepared to offer editorial resources to aid in the completion of this separate specification. We have looked over Doug’s initial document, made some editorial enhancements, and are prepared to follow through in taking feedback and maintaining the specification.

We believe that some sort of accessibility API functionality is needed in the canvas element. However, the exact nature and depth of that functionality presents a dilemma that may block progress on the HTML5 spec. We also think that the Canvas 2D API may be a desirable feature used in other technologies such as SVG.

Starting with Doug Schepers’ initial draft, we made changes to get the document to adhere to the W3C PubRules [4], enhance readability, and improve logical flow of the document. In addition, we foresee adding sample code throughout the specification, where appropriate. No normative changes have been made. As with all drafts, the Canvas 2D API specification is still a work in progress. We would like to solicit feedback about the changes that were made (see below TODO) and about further changes that the working group would like to see.

Our updated version is published at http://dev.w3.org/html5/canvas-api/canvas-2d-api.html.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-canvas-api/2009JulSep/0002.html
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-canvas-api/2009JulSep/0007.html
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/0628.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/2005/07/pubrules

[…]

Microsoft Internet Explorer is the only modern browser with no plans to support Canvas — Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera all do. Redmond’s opposition makes sense, as the animation capabilities Canvas provides would conflict with Microsoft’s plans to speed adoption of its Silverlight platform, which affords web authors many of the same capabilities using a proprietary plug-in and commercial development software.

Several list members pointed out that if Microsoft has the resources to author the spec independent of HTML5, those resources could be better spent building support for Canvas into the browser.

A follow-up response from Ian Hickson, a Google employee who is the primary editor of the HTML5 spec, points out a few clear problems with this strategy and stresses that it doesn’t seem list a good idea:

IF we’re going to split out the 2D API — and I’m not really sure if at this point that’s something we should do, frankly — then I would much rather we do it based on the text in the HTML5 spec now, and would much rather we have an editor who is able to give this the full-time attention that it needs.

However, I’m really not sure at this point that it even makes sense to extract the API anymore. The API intergrates pretty tightly with the rest of HTML, for example it refers to HTMLVideoElements, the HTML5 “structured clone” feature is defined in terms of canvas interfaces, and so on. There would have to be a two-way reference, which would be a maintenance nightmare, and which would just delay the progress of both documents.

What are the problems that we are trying to solve by splitting out the API at this point?

The whole thread, which is still growing, can be viewed here.

What do you think? What’s Microsoft up to?

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Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect, was the main force behind the development, and Lili Cheng, who’s worked for Microsoft since 1995, will be the general manager of FUSE Labs.  The involvement of these two individuals suggests that Microsoft’s hoping for some significant results.

As for the purpose of the new group, "FUSE Labs’ team will explore new social, real-time and media-rich applications and services that add value to existing products, or could be released on their own," according to a corporate statement.

Also, if you’re curious, Microsoft’s Creative Systems Group, Rich Media Labs, and Startup Labs are the three entities that were merged to create FUSE Labs.  FUSE Labs should include about 80 people, and they’ll be based in both Redmond and Cambridge.

Otherwise, details are scarce.  Microsoft, Ozzie, and Cheng didn’t announce anything with regards to specific products or general release dates.  But whether this ties to a potential deal with Twitter, Microsoft’s investment in Facebook, or something(s) else entirely, it’ll surely be interesting to see what comes out of FUSE Labs.

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My Phone's Web dashboard resembles an in-box.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

In step with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, Microsoft also graduated its My Phone syncing service for Windows phones (6.0-6.5) from beta to a full release. As we reported earlier morning, most of the new features are premium additions to help you find your phone if it gets lost or stolen. We’ll get to these later on. For the most part, the My Phone service acts as we expect it to–as a small app you download onto your phone, with the bulk of the management taking place on your dashboard online.

Sure enough, after downloading My Phone and signing in with your Windows Live ID (or signing up for a new one), you’ll pick from a list of data types you want to sync. These include contacts, calendar items, notes, tasks, memos, photos, and videos, songs and text messages, and documents.

Syncing took over a half hour the first time around, but we were on a terribly weak EDGE connection. Let that be a lesson to all. In the style of our times, the online dashboard resembles an e-mail in-box. From it, you can view the contents of your phone, and to some extent manage certain aspects. for instance, you can add a new calendar item and comfortably edit contact info from the desktop keyboard, but we haven’t found a way to add a contact or create a new text message. You can upload songs from any desktop to remotely load onto your phone, but My Phone missed the smattering of songs we already had on the phone. The photo sharing feature is more fleshed out, with options to publish images to Windows Live, Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace.

My Phone gives you some management option from the Windows phone.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

We’re bummed that Microsoft hasn’t broadened the syncing and sharing capabilities since My Phone’s beta days. With so many other start-ups creating fuller featured in-boxes and management dashboards than My Phone, it seems to us that Microsoft has unnecessarily reinvented the wheel.

Wheels are good things, but we would have much preferred to see Microsoft strike a deal with a partner like Dashwire, which made a similar, much more customizable dashboard you could use to originate texts and share a variety of media over e-mail. Dashwire is in the process of offering a similar product branded for Best Buy Mobile’s mIQ syncing service. The legacy Dashwire dashboard had a stylish look that could have helped increase Windows phones’ cool factor (My Phone is typically aesthetically bland), and best yet, Dashwire headquarters are practically around the corner from Redmond’s mother ship.

Despite failing to wow us with syncing and sharing features, My Phone’s premium add-ons are what differentiate its package. If you lose your phone, you can force it ring loudly for 60 seconds (they mean it), even if set to silent or vibrate, just so long as it’s on. You can choose to map its current whereabouts, based on GPS or cell tower triangulation. A free variant on this maps the last known location your phone was in, which may not be the same as where it was when it disappeared. In addition, you can lock your phone remotely, also sending a message to the screen, maybe offering a reward for the finder, or sending a contact number. You’ll need a pin to unlock it when the phone is recovered. Lastly, there’s remote erasure, the most extreme measure.

My Phone costs about $5 for seven days of access to the entire package. You purchase it as needed from the My Phone site, from within the “Connected Phones” navigation. Microsoft is letting users try the premium find-my-phone features for free until November 30, 2009. Note that you’ll see a message that you can try it out for 7-day increments.

While we haven’t been overly impressed with My Phone’s limited syncing and sharing features, the affordable phone-finding and securing tools do offer peace of mind–and maybe even a recovered phone.

Originally posted at CTIA Fall show

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