In the financial quarter that just ended, arguably one of its most important quarters ever, Microsoft had a chance to bounce back after an unprecedented year-over-year revenue drop last quarter.
But it was not meant to be. Microsoft has reported historically poor earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009.
Microsoft may have had its hand forced by web-based alternatives, but the software giant will deliver a free Web version of Office, called Office Web Apps, that will launch in tandem with the paid, desktop version of Office 2010, which is in technical preview now and due to launch in the first half of next year.
With both online (Office Web Apps) and offline (Office 2010) versions of Office forthcoming, Microsoft seemingly has all the bases covered: a new, feature-rich desktop productivity suite and a lightweight online version to compete with emerging Web-based free alternatives such as Google Docs and the Zoho suite.
With Microsoft Office 2010, due to ship in mid-2010 and being released to testers as a Technical Preview this week, Redmond will push themes including collaboration and improved productivity.
Office's iron grip on the business world, though strong, is not likely to last forever, and Microsoft is starting to follow through on its "software plus services" vow by letting customers trade upfront payments for monthly fees, most recently by offering Exchange and Sharepoint software as a web service for a monthly fee.
Microsoft has announced that businesses can get Windows 7 a month and a half before the general release date of October 22, but a new survey suggests that many of them may not want it.
Results of a survey of more than 1000 IT administrators sponsored by systems management software company ScriptLogic show that nearly 60 percent of respondents have no current plans to deploy Windows 7.
Google has announced that it has an open-source operating system for PCs in development that shares the same name as the company's browser: Chrome.
The Chrome OS announcement generated more buzz than a swarm of bees and has been called an OS market game-changer by some in the blogosphere. A Google blog post heralding Chrome OS offers a direct challenge at nemesis Microsoft and will raise some eyebrows in Redmond.
Windows 7 is proving a divisive subject even in its infancy. One example: Last week, reviews from CIO.com's sister sites, Computerworld and InfoWorld, offered radically different opinions about what Microsoft has in store for the successor of Windows Vista, expected to ship in early 2010.
Microsoft recently announced that Oct. 22 is the ship date for its coveted Windows 7 OS. But last week as the tech world buzzed loudly about the unveiling of Apple's new iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre smartphone, it was easy to forget about the next version of Windows.
Microsoft has taken its first steps in redefining search with its "decision engine", releasing Bing to a generally positive reception and with a new TV ad in the US that portrays Google (with out mentioning it by name) as a disorganised returner of random links.
Bing did surprise many a reviewer last week with its user-friendly interface and ability to logically organise content on a results page. It was hard to find a review that panned Bing and the tool has already shown a bump in search share, according to market researcher comScore.
New research from Forrester shows that while the poor economy has delayed some upgrades to Microsoft 2007, most enterprises are sticking with some version of Microsoft's productivity suite over alternatives such as Google Apps.
In a recent survey of 152 IT decision-makers at companies of all sizes, nearly 92 percent are supporting either Office 2007 or Office 2003 or earlier. Only 3.3 percent use Google Apps; 2.6 percent use Sun StarOffice 8 or 9; and 1.9 percent use Lotus Symphony.
Microsoft made Bing, its new "decision engine", publicly available this week with a background image of hot air balloons lifting off in the countryside on the Bing homepage.
It's a fitting image given Microsoft's desire to lift search off what it considers the ground level. In a speech last week at the unveiling of Bing, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called current search one-dimensional and said Bing will help people "find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks."
Bill Gates probably will not sing the praises of Keith Curtis, a programmer with Microsoft for 11 years who's now left the fold and written a book about why the Redmond way will fail. Oh yeah, Curtis is not afraid to speak his mind as a Linux guru, either.
The mantra Curtis repeats throughout his book After the Software Wars: proprietary software is holding us back as a society.
Though eight years old, Windows XP still powers 71 percent of all PCs, according to a recent report from Forrester. That translates to millions of users that Microsoft must convince to upgrade to either Vista or the upcoming Windows 7.
This has proven to be no easy task, especially in the enterprise sector. A high level of satisfaction with Windows XP from IT professionals combined with a down economy is keeping many from moving on. In a recent survey of 1,100 IT professionals from Dimensional Research, 72 per cent said they are more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than staying with an outdated XP operating system.
Sales of lightweight, low-powered mini-laptops, widely known as netbooks, have been growing rapidly with consumers during the past six months and are predicted to stay on this path. And the tech industry can't seem to get enough of talking about netbooks these days; the hype meter has been clicking up steadily for months. But do these little engines really have a place in the enterprise?
The answer is "not yet", according to IT professionals interviewed for this story.
Netbook has become as trendy a word as "cloud" and analysts predict sales are <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10209377-1.html">will grow 65 percent this year from 2008's totals</a>. But the netbook pricing game is getting complicated as OEMs try to simultaneously add features and keep prices down. The bad news for <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/488225/subject/Microsoft+Corporation">Microsoft</a>? No matter whether the OEMs stick to US$300 price points or push higher, Microsoft's overall profits are vulnerable, say industry analysts.
Google's Linux-based Android operating system was designed for cellphones, but excitement is building about the prospect of Google running Android on low-power netbooks.