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MICROSOFT CORPORATION
(NASDAQ: MSFT) is the world's largest software maker
by revenue, with $58.43 billion of revenue in FY2009. Its software products run the gamut from
operating systems for servers, personal computers, mobile phones, and other
devices to software development tools, video games, and hardware such as the
Xbox 360 and Zune.
Despite the successes of Apple’s client
operating system and client and server systems under Linux and other unix-like
operating systems, Windows not only continues to dominate its rivals in
operating systems but is also growing market share. With the release of Windows
7 in December 2009, Windows finished the year with roughly a 92% market share,
as well as an 80% market share among enterprise customers and a 63% market
share in web browsing (through Internet Explore
In 2008, Standard & Poor's, the ratings
agency, upgraded the stock to AAA, the highest possible rating. Microsoft was
the first company to receive the rating in a decade. Only 5 other corporations
in the United States held such a rating at that time
Co-founded in 1975 by
Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft Corporation has built a dominant position
the computer industry. Its 1992 introduction of the Windows 3.1 operating
system created a successful recurring revenue source for the company, as in
subsequent years, the highly successful releases of Windows 95 and 98
consolidated its industry lead, as did well-received updated Microsoft Office
software. Today, multi-national Microsoft remains at the head of the industry,
its desktop operating system market share exceeding 90% and its global annual
revenue of more than $44 billion. While the bulk of Microsoft’s profits derive
from , a significant minority of its profits is
derived from consumers, and Microsoft is a common name both at home and work.
Microsoft reported a record revenue of roughly
$19 billion for 2Q10, a 14% increase from 2Q09. Top-line growth was driven by
the well-hyped release of its new operating system, Windows 7, which was
launched globally October 2009 and sold more than 60 million copies in 2Q10,
making it the fastest selling operating system in history It was also boosted
by a 15-17% YoY increase in unit PC sales, as well as the sale of 5.2 million
XBOX 360 consoles . Its Online Services
Division witnessed a 5% YoY decline, hurt by a 2% decline in online advertising
revenue and the negative impact international rate declines took on its display
revenue. However, the real story in 2Q10 was MSFT's ability to simultaneously
cut costs, which resulted in a net income of $6.66 billion for the quarter, a
60% increase over 2Q09. This disciplined cost-cutting dates back to FY2009,
when MSFT reduced general and administrative expenses by 28% to offset the weakness
in the global PC and server market that was plaguing its revenue growth [ The company also managed to generate $5.0
billion in operating cash flow, $4.8 billion of which it returned to investors.
Microsoft’s products and service offerings fall
into five divisions or business sectors:
§ Client (28% of revenue and 45% of net income in
FY2009: The client segment,
accounting for approximately 28% of total revenue, includes sales and marketing
expenses for the Windows operating system. 80% of this revenue is from the sale
of products with pre-install versions of Windows operating systems. In an effort to strengthen its grip on the PC
market, Microsoft launched Windows 7 on October 22, 2009 replacing its
disappointing Vista, which had been released three years earlier. Visa
frustrated many home users and turned off business customers due to its
sluggishness, intrusiveness, and incompatibility with many gadgets. Windows 7
is faster, less cluttered, and has new touch-screen features, while keeping
Vista’s security and stability In June
2010, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 was the fastest selling operating
system in history, having sold more than 150 million licenses since its debut,
a rate of approximately "7 copies per second."
§ Server and Tools - Products for IT Professionals
(22% of revenue and 16% of net income in FY2009): The Server and Tools segment, which accounts for
approximately 22% of Microsoft’s revenue, develops and markets software server
products, services, and solutions such as Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio
2008. Approximately 45% of Server and Tools revenue comes from multi-year
licensing agreements, 25% through fully packaged product and transactional
volume licensing programs, and 10% from licenses sold to original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs).
§ Business (32% of revenue and 42% of net income
in FY2009): Microsoft Business
Division (“MBD”), accounting for approximately 32% of Microsoft’s revenue,
includes the Microsoft Office system (about 90% of MBD revenue) and Microsoft
Dynamics business solutions. Approximately 80% of MBD revenue is generated from
sales to businesses, the rest being derived from sales to consumers.
§ Online Services (5% of revenue and -4% of net
income in FY2009): The Online Services
Business (“OSB”), approximately 5% of Microsoft’s revenue, consists of an
on-line advertising platform with offerings for both publishers and
advertisers, personal communications services such as email and instant
messaging, online information offerings such as Live Search, and the MSN
portals and channels around the world. In 2008, this included new releases of Windows Live Search, the
Windows Live suite of applications and services, and their MSN Video Service.
Revenue comes primarily from
§ Entertainment and Devices (13% of revenue and 1%
of net income in FY2009): Approximately 13% of
total revenue, Entertainment and Devices is the most high-profile aspect of
Microsoft’s expansion. E&D includes the highly successful a large collection of Microsoft-licensed video
and computer game titles (including Halo and the Age of Empires series),
Windows Mobile and Automotive (operating systems for mobile and car navigation
devices), and the Zune MP3 playerIn June 2010, Microsoft released a slimmer
version of the console known as the Xbox 360 Slim, in an effort to lower its
production costs and compete with the smaller consoles of rivals such as who had great success with the launch of its
re-designed Play Station The company also said that starting November 2010,
Xbox 360 releases will come equipped with Kinect, a body movement-sensitive
add-on peripheral
In May 2010, Microsoft
released two phones under the Microsoft brand in an attempt to target teenagers
and facilitate social networking access. In contrast to focusing on building
its phone around third party applications, it strives for simplicity by merely
integrating popular social features, such as Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, etc These
phones, manufactured by and distributed through wireless carrier were not compatible with
applications written for the previous operating systems, in an effort to
maximize functionality and user friendlinessLess than two months in Saturday, 11 February 2012
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Friday, 10 February 2012
iPhone apps Path and Hipster offer address-book apology
Path says it helps you "share life with the ones you love" The makers of two iPhone apps have apologised after it emerged they had uploaded users address-book information without explicit permission.
Path and Hipster both sent contact data to company servers in order to help users find friends who were also using the apps.
Both companies said they had now updated their apps to fix the problem.
But there is concern the practice may be more widespread. Hipster has called for a "summit" to discuss app privacy.
Path is a social media app which bills itself as "the smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love".
Arun Thampi, a software developer, first drew attention to the issue with Path in a blog post after he discovered that his phone's address book was being sent to the company's servers without his permission.
The company has since apologised. "We made a mistake," Path chief executive David Morin said in a blog post.
"Through the feedback we've received from all of you, we now understand that the way we had designed our 'Add Friends' feature was wrong," he wrote.
According to the company, contact information was encrypted before being sent to its servers. However, Mr Morin said Path had now "deleted the entire collection of uploaded contact information from our servers".
Path updated its app with a feature which asks users whether they want the service to use personal contact list information.
Hipster howler The discovery of the Path issue was quickly followed by news of a similar problem with Hipster.
Hipster says it allows users to "easily share where you are and what you're doing with postcards of your photos".
Like Path, the Hipster app was revealed to be uploading address book information to the company's servers without explicit permission.
"We blew it, we're sorry, and we're going to make it right," wrote contrite Hipster boss Doug Ludlow in a guest post on the blog Techcrunch.
"When we built our 'Find Friends' feature for iOS, we clearly dropped the ball when it comes to protecting our users' privacy," he added.
Hipster has, like Path, made an updated version of the app available which makes sharing contact information an opt-in.
Friend-sharing forum Mr Ludlow invited other developers to attend an "application privacy summit" at its San Francisco headquarters.
The aim, he wrote, would be to create a "privacy pledge - one that AA to launch sat-nav tech tracked insurance policy
The black box device is fitted to the policy holder's car The AA is set to launch a new insurance policy which uses sat-nav technology to track driver performance.
The firm said the system would allow its better drivers to receive cheaper premiums.
It follows similar efforts by smaller insurers. Larger rival Direct Line has told the BBC it is also piloting its own "black box" scheme.
Critics of the technology said that data should not be used as a reliable measure of a driver's ability.
The system involves the installation of a small black box into the driver's car which records how they drive.
The measures include monitoring speed, braking severity, cornering and the types of roads used during certain times of day.
This information is transmitted remotely to the insurers, and can also be accessed by users via a website which gives information on overall performance, warning them if they are likely to be moved to a higher premium.
"The reports are pretty detailed," AA spokesman Ian Crowder told the BBC ahead of Wednesday's formal announcement.
"The point is that these sorts of devices firmly put in the hands of the driver a responsibility for driving safely. It makes you think."
Start Quote
Keith Peat Association of British DriversWhat we are totally against is people who don't give their consent being penalised”
The information could be used to prove who was at fault in accidents, Mr Crowder added, but such detailed information would only be disclosed with a court order.
'Stern email' He added that the system could also detect sudden hard braking so assistance could be sent.
Extreme speeds would be greeted with "a stern email" to the driver.
He said the "pay-how-you-drive" system, which is aimed primarily at young drivers, could save customers up to £850 per year.
"All the anecdotal evidence suggests that people who have installed the system have about a 30% better claims experience - in other words, less crashes - than those who don't," he added.
The technology, known as "telematics" or "black box insurance" has for several months been utilised by smaller insurance firms such as Co-Op and Coverbox.
Welsh insurance firm Motaquote has just launched a partnership with leading sat-nav manufacturer TomTom to offer real-time feedback on driver performance.
Drivers can check on their data via an online dashboard Other major insurers are expected to launch policies soon. Direct Line told the BBC it had begun a pilot using its own technology - called Tracker - which it hoped to implement by the end of the year.
Elsewhere, car hire firm Avis said telematics is "one to watch", and said it might consider using the technology in its vehicles.
'Spy in the car' Malcolm Tarling, from the Association of British Insurers, said it is an approach which is likely to become commonplace.
"It's particularly important for young drivers who have high premiums," he said.
"You may say you don't want a 'spy in the car' as some call them, but others may say that if this is one way of making my premiums reflect my safety on the road, this will be of interest."
But Keith Peat, a spokesman for the Association for British Drivers, told the BBC he was worried that drivers who did not want to allow telematics in their vehicle would face higher costs.
"Providing the drivers give their consent it is OK," he said.
"But what we are totally against is people who don't give their consent being penalised."
Thursday, 9 February 2012
The late Steve Jobs reportedly said he wanted to "destroy" Android for "copying" his firm's ideas Apple seeks change to 'essential' patent licence rules
Apple has asked for more clarity over how patents deemed crucial to industry standards should be handled.
The firm wrote a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in November, which has now been reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The iPhone maker called for "more consistent and transparent" application of rules designed to ensure that such intellectual properties were licensed.
Both Samsung and Motorola Mobility have sued Apple over "essential" patents.
The document has since been published in full on the Foss Patents blog.
It centres on what are termed Frand principles - an agreement to license technologies critical to a recognised standard, such as 3G networks or MP3 files, under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
Companies that sign up to the rules agree that they cannot discriminate who gets to use their invention so long as they are paid a fee, which cannot be excessive.
Three-step plan Apple notes that it committed itself to the agreement in 2007 - although it has launched numerous lawsuits concerning its rivals' alleged infringements of its non-Frand innovations.
The company's request lists three specific points:
- Parties should only be able to claim an "appropriate royalty rate", both at the start and end of negotiations.
- There should be a "common royalty base" - in other words, the patent's value should be determined as a percentage of the cost of the relevant components rather than the device as a whole.
- Patent owners should commit to a "no injunction" policy under which they do not seek to block the sale or shipments of rivals' equipment on the basis of a Frand-patent dispute.
"Apple is committed to this framework, provided that other parties reciprocate," said Bruce Watrous, the firm's chief intellectual property counsel.
Foss Patents' author, consultant Florian Mueller, links the letter to 9 To 5 Mac's revelation last September that Samsung had sought 2.4% of Apple's sales prices for each of a series of 3G-related Frand-type patents that it contested last year. The case was rejected by a Dutch court.
The European Commission has subsequently notified Samsung that it is investigating whether the firm had used its rights to "distort competition in European mobile device markets".
Blame game Mr Mueller also notes that Motorola Mobility sought 2.25% of Apple 3G-enabled iPhone and iPad sale prices when Apple sought to license the Razr phonemaker' s GPRS-related Frand-innovations.
Apple had to briefly remove several of its devices from its German online store last week because of the dispute with Motorola.
However, one patent lawyer suggested that Apple was not blameless in the spate of recent lawsuits.
"Steve Jobs effectively declared war on Samsung and Android - so the litigation has been emotionally charged," said Ilya Kazi from the UK's Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.
"It is fair to say that most manufacturers are in favour of Frand-type agreements - at least when they are on the receiving end of a lawsuit.
"The issue is whether this letter has a great deal of legal significance. Frand is a great principle but there is also the underlying principle of letting patent holders enforce their rights."
Regional cybercrime hubs launched across England
Three police cybercrime teams have been launched as part of a £6m regional effort to combat growing threats.
Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and East Midlands will each get its own dedicated unit.
They will work alongside the Metropolitan Police Centre e-crime Unit which deals with national online security.
The funding is part of £30m targeted at bolstering e-crime prevention nationally over the next four years.
The new centres will consist of three members of staff - a detective sergeant and two detective constables.
The initiative was announced at the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) e-crime conference in Sheffield on Wednesday.
'Critical role' A training period is required before the hubs will be fully operational, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams, who heads ACPO's e-crime efforts, said.
"These three additional policing units are going to play a critical role in our ability to combat the threat," she added.
“Start Quote
David Emm Security researcherIt seems to me to be a positive move towards enhancing the national response to cybercrime”
"It is anticipated the hubs will make a significant contribution to the 'national harm reduction' target of £504m."
Harm reduction is calculated using a "harm matrix" - a system which factors in costs such as how much the criminal stood to gain, how much money was invested in the crime, and the potential cost to the victim.
"In the first six months of the new funding period alone we have already been able to show a reduction of £140m with our existing capability," Ms Williams said.
Britain's e-crime efforts were exposed last week after a conference call in which Met officers discussed operations against hackers with the FBI was itself intercepted by hackers.
Details about active investigations into hackers who identified themselves with the activist collective Anonymous were posted online.
At one point in the tape, a British detective can be heard saying: "We're here to help. We've cocked things up in the past, we know that."
'Positive move' The move to increase funding and reach of e-crime prevention efforts has been praised by security professionals.
"It seems to me to be a positive move towards enhancing the national response to cybercrime," said David Emm, a security researcher for Kaspersky.
"Until now, most of the police's expertise in computer-based crime has been concentrated in the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Met.
"Clearly, the government is keen to widen the field of expertise, and this is part of that initiative."
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Trendnet security cam flaw exposes video feeds on net
Feeds from thousands of Trendnet home security cameras have been breached, allowing any web user to access live footage without needing a password.
Internet addresses which link to the video streams have been posted to a variety of popular messageboard sites.
Users have expressed concern after finding they could view children's bedrooms among other locations.
US-based Trendnet says it is in the process of releasing updates to correct a coding error introduced in 2010.
It said it had emailed customers who had registered affected devices to alert them to the problem.
However, a spokesman told the BBC that "roughly 5%" of purchasers had registered their cameras and it had not yet issued a formal media release despite being aware of the problem for more than three weeks.
"We first became aware of this on 12 January," said Zak Wood, Trendnet's director of global marketing.
"As of this week we have identified 26 [vulnerable] models. Seven of the models - the firmware has been tested and released.
"We anticipate to have all of the revised firmware available this week. We are scrambling to discover how the code was introduced and at this point it seems like a coding oversight."
Mr Wood added that the California-based firm estimated that "fewer than one thousand units" might be open to this threat in the UK, but could not immediately provide an exact global tally beyond saying that it was "most likely less than 50,000".
Feed links
An internet blog first publicised the vulnerability on 10 January.
The author discovered that after setting-up one of the cameras with a password its video stream became accessible to anyone who typed in the correct net address.
Trendnet says it is in the process of releasing firmware updates for its devices In each case this consisted of the user's IP addresse followed by an identical sequence of 15 characters.
The writer then showed how the Shodan search engine - which specialises in finding online devices - could be used to discover cameras vulnerable to the flaw.
"Last I ran this there was something like 350 vulnerable devices that were available," the author wrote at the time.
However, it appears that others then took advantage of the technique to expose other links and uploaded them to the net.
Within two days a list of 679 web addresses had been posted to one site, and others followed - in some cases listing the alleged Google Maps locations associated with each camera.
Messages on one forum included: "someone caught a guy in denmark (traced to ip) getting naked in the bathroom." Another said: "I think this guy is doing situps."
One user wrote "Baby Spotted," causing another to comment "I feel like a pedophile watching this".
Some screenshots have also been uploaded.
Warning users
At the time of writing Trendnet's home page and its press release section made no mention of the problem.
However, its downloads page does list a number of "critical" updates with a brief release note saying that the code offers "improved security".
The firm - whose slogan is "networks that people trust" - said that it had halted shipments of affected products to retailers and that any delivery received since the start of this month should be safe. However, it said that items delivered at an earlier date might need a firmware update.
"We are just getting to that point to be able to succinctly convey more information to the public who would be concerned," added Mr Wood.
"We are planning an official release of information to the public concerning this, but in advance I can tell you that this week we are targeting to have firmware to all affected models."
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Friday, 3 February 2012
Apple overturns Motorola's iPad and iPhone sales bans
Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad
and iPhone models from its online store earlier today after
enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December.
An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new licence payment offer.
However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of
their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling.
Patent consultant Florian Mueller, who attended the review,
said that the suspension may only last a few days or weeks -
but that Apple's revised proposal had been enough to allow it to restart sales.
"The Karlsruhe higher regional court believes that Apple's new
offer needs to be evaluated before this injunction can enter into
force again,"he wrote on his blog.
"A suspension like this is available only against a bond, but Apple is
almost drowning in cash and obviously won't have had a problem
with obtaining and posting a bond."
He said that the bond amount was likely to have been about 120m
euros ($158m, £100m).
UnresolvedA statement from Apple said: "All iPad and iPhone models will be
back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.
"Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to
license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having
declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."
However, Motorola signalled that it would try to restore the ban.
"We are pleased that the Mannheim court has recognized the
importance of our intellectual property and granted an enforceable
injunction in Germany against Apple Sales International," a statement said.
"Although the enforcement of the injunction has been temporarily
suspended, Motorola Mobility will continue to pursue its claims against Apple."
Pulled productsThe sales ban relates to Motorola's patent for a "method for performing a
countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system".
Motorola licenses the patent to other companies on Frand (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.
Frand-type patents involve technologies that are deemed to be part
of an industry standard. In this case Motorola's innovation is deemed
crucial to the GPRS data transmission standard used by GSM cellular
networks across the world.
Companies must offer Frand-type patents for
a reasonable fee to anyone willing to pay.
Apple had previously said it would be willing
to pay the fee going forward, but the two firms
dispute how much Apple should pay for failing to
license the technology up until now. Missed payments
are not covered by the "reasonable" rule, and Motorola
is able to demand a more expensive price.
Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 had all
been affected - but not its newer iPhone 4S. All 3G
models of the iPad were involved, but not their wi-fi-only counterparts.
Email technologyThe separate push email ban would only come into
effect if Motorola decided to enforce a second
judgement that Apple's iCloud and MobileMe
infringed another of its innovations.
The patent relates to two-way communications
between pagers and other devices and was granted in 2002.
If Motorola decides to enforce the judgement some iPhone users
in Germany would lose the ability to automatically receive
emails as soon as they have been sent. Instead they would either have to manually check their accounts or set their devices to periodically check for updates.
This patent is not deemed to be critical to an industry standard, so the firm does not have to license the technology to Apple even if the iPhone-maker offered to pay.
Megaupload co-founder's bail
appeal rejected by court
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom'
s bail application appeal has been rejected in New Zealand.
The High Court in Auckland said it agreed with an earlier
ruling that Mr Dotcom - a German national - might try to flee the country.
The file-sharing site creator is accused of profiting
from the copying and distribution of pirated content.
Mr Dotcom's lawyers said that he denied the charge
and would fight an extradition application by the US.
Prosecutors had said Mr Dotcom - also known as Kim Schmitz
- posed an extreme flight risk, noting that he had passports and
bank accounts in three names and a history of fleeing criminal
charges. They said measures, such as electronic monitoring,
were likely to prove ineffective.
'Go to hell'Lawyers representing the US authorities also said that a man
with a history of making fake travel documents had
unsuccessfully asked to visit Mr Dotcom following his arrest.
Mr Dotcom's said he had no intention of running away.
He said he wanted to be with his pregnant wife and fight
to get his assets unfreezed. He also denied all knowledge
of the rejected visitor.
"If people were to approach me and to offer such a service,
I would tell them to go to hell," Mr Dotcom said.
He added that he had also been contacted by a man claiming
to be a prosecutor, who had said he could organise a favourable
bail hearing in return for a payment.
He also complained that he had been sent letters from female
prison inmates asking to become his pen pals.
Mr Dotcom's next court appearance is scheduled for 22 February,
when his extradition hearing is planned.
Data deletionMegaupload has been offline since 19 January, when the US
government forced its shutdown and executed search warrants
on two companies that provided it with file hosting services -
Cogent Communications and Carpathia Hosting.
Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken tweeted earlier this week
that the hosting firms had agreed to preserve consumers'
data until at least mid-February.
The US-based digital rights group Electronic Frontier
Foundation has since written a letter hinting it might
begin its own legal action if the service providers
consequently tried to wipe the data, now that they
were no longer being paid by Megaupload to store it.
"Many innocent third parties... used Megaupload for
wholly legal purposes and have since lost access to their data,"
wrote the organisation's legal director, Cindy Cohn.
"Many of these materials are property of the individuals
involved, and they are legally entitled not only to access
but to preservation and privacy.
"We are hopeful that our client and other third parties
can obtain access to their material without resorting to
legal action, but if that is not the case, we intend to take
the necessary steps to ensure the return of their materials."
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