Microsoft's wish that consumers purchase the premium versions of Windows Vista rather than the most basic version of the OS
may be coming true, according to the findings of a research report released Thursday.
Research from Current Analysis for the week ending Feb. 3, which covers the first five days Vista was available to U.S. retail
customers, shows that sales of PCs with Vista Home Premium preinstalled comprised 70 percent of PC unit sales in the U.S.
retail market, while sales of PCs with Vista Home Basic accounted for 22 percent. Windows Vista was released to consumers
on Jan. 30.
After more than a week of waiting, I finally caught a Vista TV commercial, and it was a sharp contrast to Apple's Vista security ad airing in the same program.
Microsoft is spending about half a billion dollars promoting its new flagship products, so it's about time some commercials showed up on TV. I had been watching, through the Super Bowl and TiVo fast forwards on hits like "24." I should have paid more attention to ABC, which Microsoft marketing favored in the past, such as the holiday 2004 "Digital Joy" commercials.
After months of planning to kill off the Hotmail name, Microsoft has decided to keep the venerable brand, as it works to overhaul its free Web e-mail service. Microsoft said on Thursday that the revamped service, still in beta testing phase, is being renamed "Windows Live Hotmail" rather than the originally planned "Windows Live Mail." In a blog posting, Senior Product Manager Richard Sim said some people had found the name change confusing.
"As we prepare to launch the final version of our new Web mail service, we recognize the importance of ensuring that our 260-plus million existing customers come over to the new service smoothly and without confusion," Sim said. "By adopting the name 'Windows Live Hotmail,' we believe we're bringing together the best of both worlds--new and old.
Microsoft is bringing out the first bits of sample code as guidance for Software-as-a-Service development in a Windows environment. The sample code, a human resources application, isn't meant to offer guidance in building HR apps, but it does embody everything developers will need to know for SaaS development.
This fictitious app is implemented as a single instance, multi-tenant application, which is a very important architecture pattern in SaaS, said Gianpaolo Carraro, director of the solutions architecture group at Microsoft.
Microsoft announced this week it is shipping the public beta for its forthcoming Forefront Server Security Management Console. The announcement came at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
Launched last June, the Forefront line of business security products aims to provide customers with a complete line of information protection and secure access products. The Forefront brand reflects the company's ongoing commitment to offering a set of security products across client, server and edge platforms.
Microsoft on Wednesday launched an ad-revenue sharing program for developers building casual games that can be downloaded or played online through MSN Games.
Under the program, Microsoft will pay as much as 20% of the gross revenue, depending on the kind of game developed. The five most popular titles on MSN Games are expected to generate a total of $250,000 in ad revenue this year, Microsoft said.
Traditionally, casual game developers are paid a set fee for a downloadable title, or a small royalty for game subscriptions. Depending on the popularity of the game, ad-revenue sharing could be more lucrative.
With its latest operating system, Microsoft is promising improved search, better security and tighter integration with Windows Live services. But the operating system isn't Vista--it's Windows Mobile 6, the latest iteration of Redmond's software for powering mobile phones.
Microsoft plans on Monday to officially announce Windows Mobile 6, formerly code-named Crossbow, at the 3GSM trade show in Barcelona. The first devices using the software aren't expected until spring, however, with the bulk of products using the new operating system likely to come in the second half of the year.
Microsoft is working to expand its security response and research operations beyond their current base in Redmond, Wash. Over the next six months, the software giant plans to establish teams in Europe and Asia for round-the-clock coverage of security incidents and to support customers of its security products, Vincent Gullotto, general manager of security research and response at Microsoft, said in an interview at the RSA Conference here Wednesday.
"Clearly, we have to build a global organization," Gullotto said. "We will develop sites to cover the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia, for us to be protecting customers and providing support globally for all the people that use the various security products that we develop."
Microsoft is preparing a spring release for an identity management infrastructure tool aimed at simplifying credential administration across the enterprise, officials said this week at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007, which is set to ship in May, builds on the metadirectory and user provisioning capabilities in the existing Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003, adding support for managing credentials such as certificates and smart cards, company statements said.
Microsoft has begun the open beta of Service Pack 3 for its aging Systems Management Server 2003. Besides bug fixes, SP3 provides some new capabilities, not least of which is support for Windows Vista.
Administrators can deploy Vista using the SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack update and manage Vista clients with SMS 2003 SP3, according to Microsoft statements.
The service pack also enables IT staffers to deploy applications to Vista client computers. Additionally, software and hardware inventories can be performed on those PCs using a new library of more than 400,000 software titles.