Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

Recap – The CES opening keynote has, traditionally been not just a keynote. Placed in the heart of the Las Vegas strip, the opening keynote has always been a show with flashy announcements and explorations of future computer and consumer electronics technologies (with the exception of the initial Bill Gates appearance in 1998). After 13 keynotes, Microsoft will depart from CES and some may agree that it was time for Microsoft to move on as there were no CES worthy announcements during a 70 minute marketing pitch that was an hour too long.

Next year will prove to be an interesting year for a lot of vendors. Market leaders like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft will face their greatest challenges and strongest opportunities, new arrivals will undoubtedly have us wondering why we hadn’t come up with a similar billion dollar idea, and in the U.S., we’ll likely have an election whose outcome will be controlled by computers for the first time. Granted, some of the concerns coming this decade will likely cause all of this to be trivial by comparison, but let’s look ahead to 2012 anyway.

One advantage from coming to the market late is that you get the chance to look at everyone else’s offering and make yours better. Not that everyone takes that opportunity mind you given how many product clones are out there that don’t come close to the original. However, in this case, Microsoft’s announced App store looks like it took the best and worst from the Google and Apple efforts and created something better. Granted, it won’t show up in final form for about a year and will have to evolve during that time to stay ahead of Apple and Google by launch, but it does show Microsoft listened.

How trivial is the operation of a data center today? Does the data center itself, in its common form, still provide room for patents? Would the supply of electricity if it came from a wind turbine that is connected to the data center, in its simplest form, qualify for a patent? Apparently so.

The Microsoft Courier Tablet has built up an almost legendary reputation as the product that could have beaten the iPad if only those old dolts Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates had gotten out of the way. Cnet recently published the backstory on this product and apparently the folks promoting this tablet, J Allard, the father of the Xbox, and Robbie Bach, who headed the now defunct consumer division, went from unsung tragic heroes to, using Steve Jobs’ favorite term,”bozos” as the result of this story.

Why would you throw away a brand that has built your fortune and supports the paychecks of more than 90,000 employees? Perhaps, because time has caught up and your old brand has too much baggage to take you into the future. If Windows 8 is just a code-name, and Microsoft leaves most of the idea of Windows 1 in the past, could or should Microsoft complete the reinvention circle and launch the new OS with a new name?

After more than five years, Microsoft decided that it is time to let go. The Zune portable media player outlived itself and was never able to make a dent in iPod sales as Microsoft had hoped.

Microsoft has battled and beaten Apple with Windows most of the time until last decade. With Windows 8, Microsoft has again thrown down the gauntlet and is creating something that comes across as more advanced than either MacOS or iOS and combining the advantages of those two into one offering. Microsoft still has many of its initial advantages with the exception of most of the people who won those early battles and their OEM relationships have weakened. On the other hand, Apple’s biggest weapon, Steve Jobs, is also out of this fight. That could get it interesting.

Microsoft has been granted a six-year old patent idea for “virtually infinite reliable storage” that functions across a distributed storage environment. It is not a new idea per se, but Microsoft’s patent adds a twist that could make this invention an enticing feature for the Windows OS. The environment configures itself into one giant hard drive.

Microsoft already has an idea how the Windows operating system may evolve after Windows 8. A patent filing entitled “Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage” describes a chain of storage devices with different priorities that would boot the operating system through remote storage.

Microsoft has wiped Google’s claims that Microsoft is assembling an arsenal of patents to attack Android off the table. Google was asked to join the bid for the portfolio. Google declined the invitation, Microsoft says and posted an email as evidence.

There are scenarios when better late than never is actually a good thing, especially when you are talking about something incredibly annoying and damaging – such as spam.