Microsoft News Tracker

Anne Broache at CNET:

A federal judge criticized Microsoft on Tuesday for what she called “foot-dragging” in regard to the company’s compliance with an antitrust settlement.

At a quarterly status conference about the compliance mandates, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly echoed the U.S. Department of Justice’s latest concerns that the software giant isn’t moving fast enough to develop technical documentation for use by licensees of the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program.

… the DOJ charges that Microsoft has let unresolved bugs with the technical documentation project–known as Troika–pile up, slowing down its delivery to licensees.

“I want to emphasize that I do expect the backlog to be reduced,” Kollar-Kotelly told the company.

The parties will continue to file monthly status reports and the next meeting with the judge is in May.

Those who were under the impression that Microsoft’s mobile phone involvement was only slightly more important than that with SPOT watches likely got a shock from all the 3GSM announcements this week. Andy Reinhardt puts it in perspective at BusinessWeek online in Microsoft’s Mobile Maneuver: The software giant may finally have figured out how to crack the wireless business:

Say this much for Microsoft: It never gives up. A decade after it started flogging a shrunken-down version of Windows for electronic devices other than PCs, the Redmond (Wash.)-based software titan is finally making a meaningful mark on the vibrant market for mobile phones.

A curious evolution has happened along the way, though. Sure, Microsoft (MSFT) is still urging handset makers to adopt mini-Windows — known today, after innumerable rebrandings, as Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 — as the core operating system for their phones. But now it’s chasing an even juicier prize: central position in a whole spectrum of mobile applications, from portable music, to wireless e-mail and messaging, to mobile TV.

In effect, Microsoft is trying to become the standard-setter and middleman for all the sexy new things people can do with their phones. “Microsoft has realized that, at the end of the day, it can’t make much money from selling operating systems for handsets,” says Ben Wood, senior mobile analyst for researcher Gartner, near London. “Instead, it’s now looking at an even bigger opportunity.”

They’d still like you to buy Windows Mobile 5.0, of course, to enable them to do all the “sexy new things.” Much more by following the link.

Apparently a new stage has been added to the Microsoft announce process. Yesterday there was the rumor that the Office Live beta would be announced Wednesday. Ordinarily that would be followed in due course by the announcement. Now there’s an intermediate step where Microsoft confirms the rumor and provides all the details, but doesn’t actually announce the offering as Elizabeth Montalbano reports at InfoWorld:

Microsoft plans to give users a first look at its Office Live hosted service on Wednesday, according to the company.

Microsoft plans to offer the service in three versions, one of which will be advertising-supported and free of charge to customers.

All three versions — Microsoft Office Live Basics, Microsoft Office Live Collaboration, and Microsoft Office Live Essentials — will be a part of the beta program. Office Live Basics will be free, while pricing for the other two will start at a subscription price of $29.95 a month.

All will be free during the beta program.

Microsoft plans to release public versions of all three Office Live editions in late 2006.

Customers that want to participate in the beta program can begin by registering online at http://www.OfficeLive.com beginning at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, according to the company.

Follow the links for the specs on the three levels. Similar coverage at Microsoft Watch, ZDNet, and Reuters.

At this point, all the announcement tomorrow will do is mark the day users can actually begin signing up.

Today Steve Ballmer delivered the keynote at the 3GSM World Congress for the mobile phone industry which has been dominating the news for the last two days. Press release:

Unveiling a new TV service for mobile phones and a new unified communications solution for mobile devices, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer today introduced several innovative solutions and strategies that will generate more revenue opportunities for mobile operators and provide compelling benefits for subscribers.

As part of his keynote speech at 3GSM World Congress 2006, Ballmer announced the upcoming availability of Microsoft ® Office Communicator Mobile, which provides workers with the advantages of enterprise-grade, real-time collaboration capabilities for their mobile solutions. He also showed off a new live TV service introduced by Virgin Mobile and BT Movio powered by Microsoft for Windows Mobile ® -based Smartphones, and the new sync center for mobile devices in Windows Vista™, the new Windows ® operating system debuting later this year.

Ballmer also shared the first public demonstration of how Windows Live™, the recently introduced set of personal Internet services and software, will extend from the PC and Internet to mobile devices, and highlighted how leading mobile operators are using other innovative mobile services to attract new customers and build subscriber loyalty.
…
As part of the address, Ballmer highlighted the growth of Microsoft in the wireless industry over the past three years. The company has progressed from working with only one mobile operator in one country with one device-maker to 102 mobile operators in 55 countries with 47 device-makers overall today.

In addition, Microsoft shipped more than 6 million Windows Mobile-based connected devices in 2005, and expects the market to grow significantly.

Office Communicator is Microsoft’s instant messaging (and more) client for businesses and it merited a separate press release - Microsoft Office Communicator Goes Mobile. The mobile version will be available for download by users of Microsoft’s Live Communication Server within 60 days.

As for the TV service, we discussed the rumor yesterday and it seems to be as expected:

In the message Sir Richard announced that Virgin Mobile will be the first mobile operator to sign up for the new BT Movio broadcast digital TV and radio service, which is built with Windows Media technology and works with Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. This will make Virgin Mobile customers the first in Europe to have live digital TV on their mobile phones.

For Windows Live, there are now some new mobile members of the burgeoning brood and their kissing cousins at MSN:

Building on the investment in mobile search evidenced by the company’s recent acquisition of MotionBridge, Microsoft demonstrated Windows Live Mobile Search, including local search, which enables customers to quickly find what they need in the location they are searching. Windows Live Mail for Mobile was also demonstrated, which shares a common address book with Windows Live services for PCs and helps customers access and maintain the list of people they communicate with from the PC and mobile device.

With Windows Live services, Microsoft will help mobile operators realize new differentiation and monetization options through best-in-class mobile consumer services. The new Windows Live for Mobile model also provides developers and mobile operators with the ability to differentiate, innovate and bring solutions to market faster based on its open application programming interfaces (APIs).

Customers in several markets around the world can try the betas of mobile versions of Windows Live Mail, Messenger, Search and MSN ® Spaces by signing up at ideas.live.com or by going to http://mobile.live.com on their mobile browser. Windows Live Mail and Search betas for mobile are now available in key markets such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. Also, Windows Live Local Search beta is now available in the United States and will go live in the in the U.K. on Feb. 15, 2006.

Finally, for Vista:

Ballmer also discussed new mobility enhancements for Windows Vista, the next version of the Windows client operating system launching in 2006. Demonstrating for the first time the Windows Mobile Device Center, Ballmer showed how Windows Vista will make it easier to connect Windows Mobile-powered devices to PCs, and enable synchronization of data, contacts, pictures, music and more.

The Windows Mobile Device Center works with the new Windows Vista Sync Center, which unifies the management of synchronization activities across Windows Mobile-based devices and the synchronization between other PCs and network file shares.

In the latest episode of the ongoing European Union Microsoft antitrust saga, Microsoft has requested a hearing to explain its response to the European Commission:

Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it will request a hearing to explain its case to European Union regulators ahead of an EU decision on whether to impose fines of up to euro2 million (US$2.38 million) a day on the software giant for failing to comply with an antitrust ruling.

Microsoft also said it would give a full written response to the European Commission’s complaints by the Wednesday deadline.

Wednesday is merely the due date day for the Microsoft response. The hearing, which is provided for under EC rules, and the final EC decision will come later.

Update: More from Simon Taylor in InfoWorld:

One day ahead of the deadline for explaining why it believes it has complied with the European Commission’s antitrust ruling against it, Microsoft’s top European lawyer said on Tuesday that the company is confident that it has met or exceeded all of the Commission’s demands.

What else could he say? As for the timeline:

That hearing is expected to take four to six weeks to organize. The Commission will then draw up a preliminary assessment as to whether Microsoft is in compliance. That assessment, and any decision to fine Microsoft, will have to be discussed by a committee of European Union member states’ competition experts.

A final decision on the fines is therefore not expected before July.