Microsoft News & Articles

Microsoft's Office dominance is under attack as cloud services, users working on tablets and even the replacement documents by emails all take their toll. What can Microsoft pull out of the hat to liven its ageing service? 

Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone, with the aim of competing with established players like the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S III. Given the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet's success in the low-end tablet and e-reader market, will Amazon likewise succeed in selling its Android-powered smartphones using content as a draw?

Mobile users will need to wait a bit longer for Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM. Last week, the technology giant quietly noted in a blog post that clients for mobile devices will not be available until the fourth quarter.

Now that Microsoft’s long-anticipated US$ 1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer has finally been announced and the dust has settled a bit, it’s worth taking a fresh look at what can be seen both as one of our industry’s most fascinating transactions and one of its worst-kept secrets.

Neudesic Pulse has teamed up with iQ for Business, provider of useable data for teams who want to base their decisions on solid info, to integrate social collaboration into the BI stream.

Microsoft is continuing its efforts to expand the breadth of its cloud offerings. Last month, the company enhanced Azure with several features, most notably, Linux support. Now Microsoft has its sights set on the private web. Microsoft has released a new set of tools that make it easier to create private cloud environment on Windows Server2012.

Considering that sixty-eight percent of US consumers report an unsatisfactory service interaction during the past 12 months, everyone is focused on improving the customer experience. While it’s the responsibility of organizations to change internal culture to reflect transparency and more active communications, customer relationship management vendors also need to better manage customer data, provide richer analytics, and integrate social and mobility capabilities. According to the Forrester Wave: CRM Suite Customer Service Solutions, Q3 2012, there are a few CRM vendors leading the way.

While attending TechEd Europe in Amsterdam last month, I was able to attend a session on the topic of big data by Gert Drapers, a principal software architect on the SQL Server team at Microsoft. His session, entitled "Big Data, Big Deal?" was based on content by David J. DeWitt and Rimma Nehme from their SQL Pass 2011 keynote, and sought to clarify the definition of big data and Microsoft's role in the space.

Microsoft’s Bing brand is not just about search anymore. It seems Microsoft is on the verge of launching a new startup incubator and angel investment fund, which the company is calling the Bing Fund.

 Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 will release to manufacturing this August, with a general launch of the OS and new hardware happening at the end of October. 

Sitefinity CMS maker Telerik has decided to make its OpenAccess ORM tool free to software developers building data tools for database platforms like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and PostgreSQL.

It may be a short week, but there’s still plenty happening. There are ongoing rumors that Office 15 will go into public beta any day now, Foxit offers PDF management for Surface, ABBYY and SoftCo partner, while WatchDox offers a Dropbox, Box alternative. Huddle is also offering syncing functionality for iPad.

 In an effort to get the whole computing world over to its latest operating system, Microsoft will be charging just $39.99 for current Windows 7 or XP users to upgrade via digital means. Anyone wanting a quaint boxed copy will have to pay $69.99.

There seems to be a lot of chatter around Microsoft's purchase of Yammer. There is clearly much to talk about here especially what it means for the addictive business narcotic known as SharePoint. This topic is not that interesting to me as I find this acquisition to be one more step towards the inevitable demise of licensed application software for businesses.

Microsoft’s slow drip of information about the release of its new business productivity software continues. Over the past six months there have been a number of leaks around SharePoint, for example, as well as Office 15. With the latter, the wait could be over as there are reports that Office 15 will be going into beta this week.