Next month, Microsoft will bring to developers tools already in the queue for designers.
Microsoft plans to follow this month's Visual Studio codename "Orcas" CTP with another in February. The next Orcas CTP will include many of the tools Microsoft previously announced for its Expression Studio suite.
I spoke with Forest Key, director of product management for Microsoft's design tools, late yesterday after several Microsoft Watch readers voiced confusion about Expression. The software isn't available to subscriber developers through MSDN, and they wanted to know why.
Microsoft hopes to give its software a stronger foothold in the retail industry with partnerships slated to be announced today -- including a new collaboration with a rival in the field.
The agreements will be announced in conjunction with the National Retail Federation show in New York City, where Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, is due to give the keynote address this morning. Ballmer's appearance will be an unusual one for the show, which typically invites people from the retail industry to deliver the keynote.
Li Gong, one of Microsoft's top executives in China, is leaving the software maker, CNET News.com has learned. Gong on Wednesday told News.com that he would be leaving Microsoft in two weeks and that he planned to "go home." Outside of returning to Beijing, he declined to elaborate on what his plans are.
"Li Gong is currently exploring other career opportunities," Microsoft said in a statement to News.com. "Microsoft greatly appreciate Li's contribution to Windows Live China and supports his decision. We believe that the leadership, strong team and long term commitment to innovation will continue to drive Microsoft forward in China."
Microsoft and AMD have created a collaborative puzzle game, the Vanishing Point sweepstakes, to celebrate the consumer release of Windows Vista at the end of this month. First prize? A ride into suborbital space.
Given all of the news coming out of International CES in Las Vegas this week, I nearly missed the official announcement confirming the mysterious Vanishing Point game and detailing all the prizes.
You have to hand it to Microsoft to never miss the opportunity to get a lot of product buzz going through an interesting or unusual marketing-type campaign.
Microsoft is encouraging its partners to familiarize themselves with the next version of Dynamics CRM for a number of reasons.
Code-named "Titan," the customer relationship management application is the next generation of Dynamics CRM 3.0. Customers will be able to pick one of three deployment options for Titan: on-premise, Live CRM hosted by Microsoft, or Live CRM hosted by a third party.
But while Live CRM hosted by Microsoft is an option, the Redmond, Wash.-based software vendor thinks its customers could do with at least a
little hand-holding.
update
Sales of Windows Vista to businesses were stronger than expected during the operating system's debut month, according to a report from NPD Group.
The sales outpaced the first month's tally for Windows 2000 and only slightly trailed that for Windows XP, the market researcher said Thursday. Commercial revenue from Vista in December was 62.5 percent above that racked up by Windows 2000 in March 2000, its first month after launch. But Vista's total is 3.7 percent below what Microsoft got in the commercial channel for Windows XP in November 2001, its first month on the market.
To hear Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates tell it, there's the Xbox 360 and then there's everything else. The world's richest man is in Las Vegas this week for the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and one of the facts he touted during his keynote address Sunday night was that Microsoft exceeded its goal of shipping 10 million Xbox 360s by the end of 2006. Given its year-long head start over the competition and the lackluster showing of Sony's PlayStation 3 during the holidays, Gates says the Xbox 360 is now in lead market position.
"I'm very excited about the progress we've made to become the leader in this next generation of gaming," Gates said.
Microsoft is previewing the next major version of its Dynamics CRM (customer relationship management) software, code-named "Titan," with a growing number of its partners in the run-up to the
mid-2007 product release.
Microsoft announced the move Wednesday.
"We said last summer that Titan will be out in summer 2007 and it will," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Titan, which will probably be officially known as Dynamics CRM 4.0 will be the first Microsoft CRM release based on a multitenant
architecture and using a single code base to support three types of usage -- on-premise, hosted by partners or Microsoft.
From video-game consoles to portable music players, Microsoft has been known to arrive late in some key consumer markets, after competing products have been adopted by the masses.
For more coverage of the show online, see Todd Bishop's blog.
Internet Protocol Television isn't on that list. Microsoft long ago began betting on the technology, which uses traditional phone lines to deliver high-quality television signals to the home. But IPTV, as it's known, has yet to go mainstream.
At the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft announced that its Smart Personal Objects Technology group has released its MSN Direct navigation services.
In addition, GPS device purveyor Garmin said it will offer the new service for select versions of its products, enabling users to receive dynamic local information, such as weather conditions and traffic updates.
The MSN Direct service is delivered via Microsoft's DirectBand Network, which the company describes as a cost-effective and power-efficient system for wide-area wireless data delivery covering more than 70 percent of the U.S. population.