Tag: microsoft

Indian software market grows again

Posted on December 1, 2014 by - News

flaggThe accession to power by the “business friendly” BJP party in India has resulted in the software market starting to grow again.

That’s according to a report by market intelligence firm IDC, which said during the first half of this year, the market grew by 10.7 percent, compared to the first half of 2013.

IDC thinks the market will continue to grow in the next five years with a compound annual growth rate  (CAGR) of 10.5 percent.

Areas of growth include mobile application development and device management, security software, systems software and engineering applications.

Shweta Baidya, a senior market analyst at IDC, said that large and small to medium enterprises want to curb capital expenditure and move into the cloud.

Virtualisation and cloud players like Vmware, Salesforce and Red Hat generated good business, and database and analytics companies including Teradata, Oracle, Qlik and others saw double digit growth.

IDC provided a pie chart which shows market share in the region.

indiapie

Tablets face squeeze from notebooks, phones

Posted on November 28, 2014 by - News

ipad3Shipments of notebooks are only set to grow 0.6 percent in 2015, amounting to 174.6 million units, while sales of tablets will fall by 3.5 percent to 185.6 million units.

That’s according to Taiwanese market intelligence firm Trendforce, which said that this year notebook vendors struggled to gain market share this year by essentially engaging in a price war.

But Caroline Chen, a notebook analyst at the company, said that next year we’ll see an array of different products with tablets and low priced notebooks facing stiff competition from smartphones and so called phablets.

She thinks notebook vendors need to rethink their strategies.

Tablets didn’t do well this year and overall 366 million mobile PCs – a category that she defines as including notebook computers and tablets – shipped. That’s largely similar to sales last year.

Subsidies from major players like Microsoft, Google and Intel have skewed the market. Chromebooks, she thinks, will account for eight million units in 2015.

She said that because subsidies from Intel and Microsoft lower manufacturers’ costs, the subsidies benefit end users.  “It would be better if Microsoft and Intel can find more substantial ways to develop the market,” she said.

trendforce

Microsoft done for tax evasion in China

Posted on November 26, 2014 by - News

fb_share.af4030d35be0Chinese mandarins have the pip at Microsoft and fined the software giant more than $140 million in back taxes.

The case is being seen as the first major case concerning cross-border tax evasion in the country, as regulators ramp up pressure on US corporations doing business there.

According to China’s Xinhua official news agency, Microsoft must pay the Chinese government $137 million in back taxes and interest, as well as more than 100 million yuan in additional taxes a year in the future.

Microsoft did not confirm the report but said that in 2012 the tax authorities of China and the United States agreed to a bilateral advanced pricing agreement about Microsoft’s operations in China.

China receives tax revenue from Microsoft consistent with the terms of the agreed advanced pricing agreement.

An advanced pricing agreement sets the tax treatment of transfer pricing, or methods of booking prices and sales between subsidiaries, which Microsoft uses across the globe.

According to its fiscal 2014 annual report, Microsoft’s overall effective tax rate was 21 percent still lower than the US corporate rate of 35 percent because it funnels earnings through “foreign regional operations centres” in Ireland, Singapore, and Puerto Rico.

China was less patent than Western powers about this sort of thing. Microsoft was reporting losses for six years in China of more than two billion yuan while peers enjoyed profits. The taxman decided that this was unreasonable. It said the US company fessed up to tax evasion and its mainland subsidiary had agreed to pay the central government.

Microsoft sues the US taxman

Posted on November 25, 2014 by - News

MSlogoSoftware giant Microsoft has sued the US taxman as part of a move to find out about a law firm hired by US tax authorities in a review of how the software company books sales between subsidiaries.

Vole claims the IRS entered into a contract this year with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which specialises in litigation. The agency is paying Quinn Emanuel more than $2 million in connection with its examination of Microsoft tax returns between 2004 and 2009, the court filing said.

Microsoft wanted more information, but the IRS had not fulfilled a Freedom of Information request seeking the complete Quinn Emanuel contract and other documents.

“Government agencies, funded by citizens, have an obligation of transparency under the Freedom of Information Act,” Microsoft said in a statement.

At issue are how multinational corporations value goods and services moving across international borders from one of their units to another. These cash transfers frequently reduce a corporation’s global tax costs.

The IRS has scrutinised technology companies, including Microsoft and Amazon over how they account for such transfer pricing and it appeared to using Quinn Emanuel.

That outfit represented the Federal Housing Finance Agency in high-profile lawsuits against financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs Group over the quality of mortgage-backed securities they sold before the financial crash.

It seems a little odd that Microsoft, instead of being concerned about a potential IRS investigation is going to court to find out who the taxman is hiring as his lawyers.

 

Microsoft allies with Real Madrid

Posted on November 19, 2014 by - News

realmadridFootball team Real Madrid has struck a rather unlikely partnership with software  giant Microsoft.

Under the deal, Microsoft will be Real Madrid’s technological partner and provide digital services to the club across a number of devices including PCs, tablets, smartphones and so-called “smart shirts”.

Microsoft is staying schtum about the financial implications of the partnership but did say a number of different technological developments will be rolled out in the next few months.

This, said Microsoft, will make Real Madrid the best digital football club in the world.

Newly hatched Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a prepared statement that it is “delighted” to offer digital tools to Real Madrid supporters across the world.

Orlando Ayala (pictured right) who runs emerging markets at Microsoft said the agreement was a start of long journey and his firm will build a digital platform for Madridistas to share their passion for the football team.

Samsung cannot stop Microsoft

Posted on November 19, 2014 by - News

microsoft-in-chinaA US judge has rejected Samsung bid to put Microsoft’s smartphone patent royalties case on hold while the South Korean company pursues arbitration in Hong Kong.

New York Judge Jed Rakoff said the lawsuit would proceed despite the arbitration.

Microsoft sued Samsung in August, claiming it broke a collaboration agreement by refusing to make royalty payments after the US company announced its intention to buy Nokia’s handset business in September 2013.

The lawsuit claimed Samsung owed $6.9 million in interest on more than $1 billion in patent royalties it delayed paying. Samsung said that the Nokia acquisition in April violated its 2011 deal with Microsoft.

Samsung has gone to arbitration at the Hong Kong office of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.

Samsung  had agreed in 2011 to pay Microsoft royalties in exchange for a patent license covering phones that ran Google Android operating system.

Samsung also agreed to develop Windows phones and share confidential business information with Microsoft, according to the filing.

But once Microsoft acquired Nokia, it became a direct hardware competitor with Samsung, the filing said, and Samsung refused to share some sensitive information due to antitrust concerns.

Microsoft’s cloud blue screens

Posted on November 19, 2014 by - News

Pic Mike MageeMicrosoft ‘s Azure cloud-computing service, suffered a kick in the credibility on Tuesday after it suffered serious outages. Microsoft’s MSN web portal was taken offline.

According to Microsoft’s Azure status page, the problems started around 5pm Pacific time and have still not been fully solved. “We are experiencing a connectivity issue across multiple Azure Services,” the page said.

“Microsoft is investigating an issue affecting access to some Microsoft services,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “We are working to restore full access to these services as quickly as possible.”

Azure outages are a serious problem for Microsoft as the company tries to sell its cloud-computing service as a cost-effective and reliable alternative to Amazon’s AWS.

The outage was a major problem for those punters relying on Azure to host websites – such as Microsoft.

Microsoft suffered its last major Azure outage in August.  Amazon also has outages which does not bode well for those who look to the cloud for total reliability.

 

Enterprises scramble over Windows Server 2003 shutdown

Posted on November 18, 2014 by - News

ucs_Cray1_installCorporations, which are still having trouble getting rid of their Windows XP machines, are facing an even bigger challenge  — the shutting down of Windows Server 2003.

The server software is about to be chopped and many companies still use it – after all it has provided more than a decade of loyal service.

From 14 July 2015, Windows Server 2003 users with a standard support package will not receive updates or patches. Microsoft is offering continued support for those who want to pay extra, but that defeats the purpose of not upgrading.

The software itself is more than a decade old it has become a multi-layered mess of patches and updates to keep pace with changes in business and technology. It also contains code which is so old that most people have forgotten about it.

It also belongs to a time when the network was the main deal, and the Internet was just something you sent email on, and looked at really terrible webpages. Most security problems were internal.

Yet for some reason Windows Server 2003 is still there and companies do not appear to be rushing to get rid of it.

Microsoft estimates there are more than 10 million live systems relying on Windows Server 2003, with almost one-third of those being in Europe.

The main problem is that most companies depend on software which might not work with the new operating systems.

Either way all this is a good sales opportunity for businesses wanting to offer upgrade services.

 

Microsoft now awarded number two slot

Posted on November 17, 2014 by - News

ToiletAwardMicrosoft is now the second most valuable company in the world, behind Apple after edging past Exxon Mobil in terms of market capitalization.

Exxon Mobil was neck and neck with Jobs Mob when Apple stuffed up their Apple Maps software. But Microsoft coming up and replacing Exxon is a little surprising.

Microsoft became a number two because their stock has had a particularly good run, especially in the past year that saw an increase of more than 40 percent since January.

Redmond now has an expensive market cap valuation of approximately $408 billion, which it uses to keep its little Voles snug in bed at night. This surpasses Exxon Mobil’s market capitalization of $402 billion.

Both of them are still pretty far behind the $670 billion market cap mark that is set by Apple, and while people are still dumb enough to buy bending phones which catch fire, there is no chance of Microsoft or Exxon catching up.

That is sort of the point. If the Apple Maps fiasco could temporarily put Exxon on top, then it is almost certain to happen again. So far, Apple has not come up with any new product that will keep it on top and its long-term outlook remains bleak.

Microsoft has similar problems; it desperately needs to establish itself in a new field. It could be, that in a few years’ time, we no longer have a tech company as the most valuable in the world.

Intel drives down Chromebook prices

Posted on November 13, 2014 by - News

Intel-logoLenovo and Asustek are expected to release Chromebooks next year that will cost $149.

The machines will be powered by Rockchip technology and that is in the embrace of Intel for design and distributing its SoFIA chips, according to Digitimes Research.

The price will be around 25 percent less than the cheapest machine on the block – the C720 from Acer.

But the move is also likely to put Intel at loggerheads with its long time partner Microsoft, which is desperate to knock the Google Chromebook project on the head, and has lowered its licensing fees in a bid to be competitive and keep its place in the notebook market.

The research outfit thinks that both machines will use an 11.6-inch screen. The Lenovo device is likely to appear early next year.

Open sorcerers praise Microsoft’s change of heart

Posted on November 13, 2014 by - News

8246ad6f-df76-4aa3-98e5-3667af1d35fbMicrosoft is making huge gains into the hearts and minds of the Linux community, only a few years after describing it as software cancer.

‎Executive Director at Linux Foundation Jim Zemlin wrote in Linux.com  that Microsoft moves to open sourcing the server side .NET stack and expanding it to run on Linux and Mac OS platforms were important.

“All developers will now be able to build .NET cloud applications on Linux and Mac. These are huge moves for the company and follow its recent acknowledgement that at least 20 percent of Azure VMs are running Linux,” Zemlin wrote.

He said that these sorts of changes made everyone keenly aware of how much the software business has transformed over the last decade.

Microsoft is redefining itself in response to a world driven by open source software and collaborative development and is demonstrating its commitment to the developer in a variety of ways.

A few years ago Microsoft was among the top 20 corporate contributors to the Linux kernel. It participates in the open SDN project, OpenDaylight, and the open IoT effort the AllSeen Alliance. This year Microsoft joined the Core Infrastructure Initiative focused on funding critical open source projects running the world’s infrastructure.

While Zemlin did not agree with everything Microsoft does the new Microsoft is a different organisation when it comes to open source.

Today most software is built collaboratively and open source development accelerate’s technology, which is why competition today is so fierce and things move faster than ever before.
Microsoft understands that today’s computing markets have changed and companies cannot go it alone the way they once did, Zemlin said. He didn’t seem to mention that Microsoft makes a bundle of money out of Linux and hardware and the like.

Microsoft loses ground in schools race

Posted on November 13, 2014 by - News

1920-track_field_bellcounty_30yd_dashSoftware giant Microsoft is losing ground to the likes of Apple and Google in the race to get its gear into schools.

According to consultant Pablo Valerio,  the reason is nothing to do with marketing to kids and parents, but because it is falling short when it comes to providing teaching apps and its licencing arrangements.

Apple’s Teacher Tools and Google’s Chromebook Management Console are fuelling the adoption of Chromebooks and iPads, leaving Microsoft behind.

The recent Microsoft TechEd Europe event showed that Microsoft was close to sorting out the lack of Apps with the upcoming Windows 10 operating system.

However, Microsoft has not solved the issue of having to purchase a licence for each user as each user that logs into a device will use a licence, so that license will be taken down and it would not go back dynamically.

This will cause a heavy bill for schools with limited numbers of computers and hundreds of students using them.

Google Chromebooks have Chrome OS with specific tools for schools to manage the devices, their apps and users. Its Chromebooks for Education program is helping schools deploy large numbers of devices with an easy management system.

While it is possible to buy a small Windows laptop for about the same price of a basic Chromebook, the associated management and support costs are enormous in comparison. Also Chromebooks are pre-loaded with apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, with similar functionality to Microsoft’s Office.

Apple is the leader in the education market thanks to having the biggest collection of education apps available today, plus some unique management tools, some by Apple and some by MDM providers such as AirWatch, he said.

 

Windows bug fixed after 18 years

Posted on November 12, 2014 by - News

oldfathertimeA researcher with IBM said that a dangerous bug that existed in every version of Windows from Windows 95 onwards has finally been fixed.

Robert Freeman, manager of IBM X-Force, said that it told Microsoft about the bug in May this year and at last Microsoft is fixing it.

The bug can be used by crooks in so called “drive by” attacks to run code remotely and take over peoples’ PCs.

Freeman said that there may well be other bugs that go back decades.  “This vulnerability has been sittting in plain sight for a long time despite many other bugs being discovered and patched in the same Windows library,” he said.

He said that although his unit hadn’t found any evidence that the bug had been exploited, it “would have fetched six figures on the grey market”.

You can find more of IBM’s findings at Freeman’s blog, here.

Microsoft waves goodbye to Nokia

Posted on November 11, 2014 by - News

Microsoft's Lumia 535Software giant Microsoft released its Lumia 535 and 535 dual SIM smartphones yesterday, confirming news that it has decided to drop the Nokia brand name.

Both phones run Windows Phone 8.1.

The smartphones have a five megapixel front facing camera, a five inch display and will be released into the wild in “key markets” this month.

While pricing will vary depending on the different territories and operators, Microsoft predicts a typical retail price will be around 110 Euro.

The phones come in bright flashy colours like bright green and bright orange, but there are more sober hues too, such as cyan, white, dark grey and black.

Bundled with the phones are Skype, a pre-installed Office suite, 15GB of its cloud storage – One Drive, It also comes with Outlook and a personal “assistant” called Experience Cortana.

Why Apple’s corporate plans are doomed

Posted on November 11, 2014 by - News, Opinions

Map09_oh_noes_two_elementalsKing of consumer toys, Apple is attempting its biggest push into the consumer market, according to Reuters.

Reuters claims that Apple is hiring a dedicated sales force just to talk with potential clients like Citigroup.

This is on top of its partnership with IBM to develop apps for corporate clients and sell them on devices, the iPhone maker plans to challenge sector leaders HP, Dell, Oracle and SAP.

Of course no one is saying much in the way of details, Reuters seems to think that the deal with Big Blue will mean that Apple will be welcomed into the corporate world and give HP and Dell a kicking.  This will result in the collapse of Microsoft, Samsung and Google’s own efforts in mobile work applications.

Apparently Job’s Mob is working closely with a group of startups, including ServiceMax and PlanGrid, that already specialise in selling apps to corporate America. Apple is already in talks with other mobile enterprise developers to bring them into a more formal partnership.

For example, PlanGrid is a mobile app for construction workers to share and view blueprints. ServiceMax is a mobile app that makes it easy for companies to manage fleets of field service technicians by ensuring they have access to the right information.

ServiceMax, whose existing customers include Procter & Gamble (PG.N) and DuPont, has co-hosted eight dinners with Apple over the past year in locations across the United States. About 25 or 30 chief information officers and “chief service officers” typically show up at these joint marketing and sales events.

But there are huge problems with Reuter’s desire to see Apple in charge of the world. The most obvious is that Apple makes toys it does not make corporate devices. Corporates are obsessed with security, Apple’s iCloud can’t even protect b list celebs from having their naked pictures being hacked.

Tablets were an Apple inspired Fad and any belief that corporates will rush to buy them never really happened. If they are ever adopted by corporates, they will be a low-level function which will require something a lot cheaper than Jobs’ Mob wants to support. Apple really needed BYOD to take off, which it didn’t.

Apple’s success has been due to its cult following, but religion does not work very well when it comes to business. Apple lacks functionality with business systems, corporates also take a dim view of the sort of things that Apple user agreements desire from their followers. Apple is also slow to confirm security flaws, and even slower to fix them. Its insistence on its own security, rather than that of the client also does not sit well with big business.

In short, to get business customers, Apple needs to change its mentality – something historically it has been unable to do. It not only has to deal with the experts in business, such as Microsoft, HP, Dell and SAP, its traditional rivals, such as Samsung are also harbour similar ambitions.

Samsung has confirmed that it is stepping up its efforts to sell devices to large enterprise clients and hired former chief information officer Robin Bienfait to spearhead that effort. It might hit the same experience problems that Apple has, and there is no reason to suspect it will be any more successful.

Apple’s IBM partnership might not be that key to the corporations either. It relies on IBM’s sales team selling Apple projects. IBM has as much experience selling consumer products as Apple has selling into business. Jobs’ Mob also has no clue about business software, which is the key to getting into the business market — for decades its networking technology has been the weak point of the few Apple installations in corporates.

Apple appears to hope that if it can hook the client on the software and content, they will keep them coming back for the hardware. However, that simply does not work in the corporates. Hell, Microsoft was unable to get corporates to upgrade to Windows 7 because they could not see a need.  What chance does Apple’s business model have against that attitude?