Posts tagged microsoft
“ What a day for Android. It was just pushed behind the scenes as the thing that powers that awesome, cheap Amazon Kindle tablet. And made into that thing you pay Microsoft to use.”
Couple this with the earlier news that 2/3rd’s of Google’s mobile search is from iOS devices and we have quite a tangled web.
Google tests the monopoly line
The Columbia Journalism Review has an excellent roundup of reactions to Google’s purchase of ITA, an airline-flight information provider.
In a nutshell, CJR describes how this purchase (among others) pushes Google towards monopoly status in two ways. First, Google is purchasing a company that may present potential competition to their core paid search business. But more importantly, with a purchase like ITA, Google is going beyond ‘organizing the world’s information’ to actually owning it.
Given their massive hold on how people find information online, there is a risk that their closely-held search algorithm could favor their own products. Such a move is almost a direct equivalent to Microsoft making IE the default browser within Windows.
CJR sums it up:
Further complicating this is that Google, despite all its talk of openness, is a black box. Its search algorithms are top secret, meaning it could manipulate them how it likes to favor its businesses in results. Why does that matter? Norris points us to a comment by Google’s head of search results in the Telegraph, who calls those results ““the biggest kingmaker on this Earth.”
Microsoft CEO to get guest slot at Apple CEO keynote
OK, this is an even bigger PR coup than Gray Powell on stage. The Register writes:
Anti-Adobe, anti-Google, anti-antitrust masterstroke?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will take a seven-minute segment of Steve Jobs’ Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to announce that his Visual Studio 2010 software will compile native Mac OS X and iPhone OS applications.
Yahoo Integrating Twitter, Twitter Getting Cash
Twitter has fallen backwards into the perfect revenue model for their current situation: selling access to their data.
Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google will keep them in the black and flush while they take their sweet time figuring out the right way to bring advertising to their network. The platform agnostic position they find themselves in is certainly sweet, especially as the internet is starting to fragment into big platform chunks.
Finally Official: Motorola Doesn't Love Android That Much After All
Moto CEO Sanjay Jha finally confirms the suspicions:
Talking to the WSJ about the new Motorola, CEO Sanjay Jha had some interesting stuff to say. Like, if Motorola wasn’t poor, they’d develop their own OS. And now that Windows Phone doesn’t suck, they’re open to using it again.
Apple and Microsoft in talks to make Bing the default iPhone search engine?
go:
On Monday we asked, based on some rumor rumbles, could Apple snub Google and set Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on the iPhone’s browser? BusinessWeek says yep.
Love this point over at Business Insider: “Apple just needs a search API it can use on its phone. If Microsoft will pay a premium, and Apple doesn’t have to see an ugly Bing interface, Apple doesn’t care.”
Whoa. Is search commoditized? At least when it comes to function, this appears to be the case. If Microsoft negotiates installs with big players (rather than forcing them to rely on AdWords) they could capture a significant share. Especially if they make up for the change with better service.
And no, I don’t think there’s an ounce of truth to the rumor that Apple will build it’s own search engine right now. They can’t offer a better experience than Microsoft out of the gate (the consumer will suffer), their ad-serving isn’t in place yet (so they won’t profit), and there’s almost no incentive to build a search engine when you can buy one. File this one for later.
CES Winners: Great Partners
The first week back from winter break is always hard. Not only do I need to catch up with accrued email, but the tech world is in overdrive due to CES. It’s a perfect storm of sorts.
Now that the big announcements are out we’re starting to see some themes solidify. Ebooks. Application platforms. 3D. Mobile. But what companies are winning? Right now it looks to be the people behind the scenes, the quieter players who assist and enhance the loud ones. Companies that are great partners are building their positions behind the scenes. They embrace many opportunities to work with others and strive to make their products play nicely with all.
Here’s my list of winners so far:
- HTC: HTC is one of the best partners in the industry. They stuck with Windows Mobile longer than anyone else, even taking it upon themselves to design a better interface for it. With Google, they’ve become nearly synonymous with Android. But even with that direct line to the
smartsuperphone market, they’re building fantastic devices for BREW, bringing their magic to budget phones. Did I mention they play nice with carriers too? It looks like they’ve got featured phones on each of the big 4 this year, a feat which is only matched by RIM. 2010 is HTC’s year. Just watch: they’re going to be the Dell or HP of the mobile generation. - Amazon: HP and Microsoft’s tablet announcement was met with crickets, but buried in the details was a key fact: the integrated reader in the Windows 7 device was Amazon’s own. So if Apple tablet rumors have lit fires under all PC makers that run Windows 7, Amazon stands to expand it’s Kindle Platform market share to a big chunk of the market. The ereader space tilts even more in Amazon’s favor if they lock down the tablet marketplace. Who cares if Amazon’s tablet/ereader is black and white only? Let the OEM’s incorporate their software on their own.
- Netflix: Netflix Streaming continues its march across your future entertainment center. This CES they announced streaming deals on bluray players and TVs made by Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, and Funai. Last year they announced a partnership with Vizio, and I’m pretty sure they have one in place with Sony. Last time I was at Costco, 4 out of the 5 bluray players had Netflix inside.
- XBox: While not really a company, this product seems to be hitting all the right notes in a very un-Microsoft way. Full media box, check. Netflix on board, check. Set-top box replacement, on the way. Kick-ass community that’s owning the competition, check. Social network integration, check. Hell, a full third of time spend using the XBox is spend doing non-gaming things.
Microsoft Stores Printing PC Games on Location
Epic. Printing physical media in retail spaces makes your stockroom infinite and obliterates the need to quickly move content off the shelf.
This is how Netflix should answer RedBox (though they don’t really need to..). Kiosks that print content.
Good luck getting the studios to agree, though if they keep prices above RedBox, studios might deal for the lesser evil. (Via Joystiq)
