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Martin LaMonica at CNET:
IBM upped the stakes in an ongoing contest over corporate e-mail software with a program that offers business partners up to $20,000 to dump Microsoft’s Exchange in favor of IBM’s Lotus software on Linux.
Dubbed “Migrate to the Penguin,” the latest IBM incentive plan, to be announced later on Thursday, is an expansion of its Move2Lotus program, which is aimed at winning over third-party consultants and software resellers that work with Microsoft’s Exchange.
IBM is offering a limited-time rebate for IBM partners that move customers from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux. The offer gives $20 per licensed Exchange user, or “seat,” maxing out at $20,000.
In addition, IBM is offering a service to have customers’ Domino servers hosted on a trial basis rather than have the software installed on in-office servers.
Since Domino runs perfectly well on Windows server operating systems, I guess they are really fired up. Perhaps it was Steve Ballmer’s comments after announcing the “People-Ready” campaign?
Today’s the start of the European Commission hearing on Microsoft’s appeal of the large fines slapped on them for noncompliance with the EC’s antitrust directives and the two sides were getting in some verbal jabs before the bout started. Microsoft lead off with a press release, Tech Companies Say Microsoft Documents Enable Product Development, that quoted six firms, including EMC, as saying that Microsoft’s technical documentation of server protocols was just dandy:
The companies say they have successfully used that documentation to develop and release interoperable software products to the marketplace.
The EC seemed to be caught flatfooted, but quickly fired back:
“The reason for this hearing is purely a media exercise for Microsoft,” Cecilio Madero, senior Commission official leading the case at the two-day closed hearing, told reporters.
Then as the parties entered the hearing there was more:
“We have complied beyond the requirements of the Commission’s decision,” Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith, told reporters before the hearing. “Microsoft is willing to do more … Daily fines are not the solution.”
Microsoft says it has submitted 12,000 pages of documentation and will offer parts of its vital source code for work group servers as well as 500 hours of free technical support from Microsoft engineers.
But the Commission dismissed the Microsoft argument.
“Our independent trustee, who is advising the Commission and who was suggested to us by Microsoft, Professor Neil Barrett, has told us the document is, to quote, ‘totally useless’,” said Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd.
Microsoft, the Commission and third parties such as associations representing Microsoft’s rivals and technology pressure groups will take part in the hearing.
The information will then be assessed by the Commission, which will decide whether to fine Microsoft. This process is likely to take several weeks, the Commission said.
Todd also got in another zinger:
But EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the company still has to comply with a 2-year-old antitrust order to share technical information with rivals.
“The best outcome for everybody would be that Microsoft were to finally do that,” he said.
One further note – Microsoft canceled a planned press briefing after today’s hearing:
Microsoft (MSFT) cancelled an 1115 GMT news conference on Thursday on a private EU hearing into whether it should be fined in an antitrust case after the hearing officer requested confidentiality.
“The Commission’s hearing officer made a clear request to all parties in the Microsoft oral hearing to respect the confidentiality of the process,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Microsoft will respect this request and has therefore cancelled the press briefing.”
Go to your corners, come out swinging, and let’s have a clean fight! More seriously, does anyone expect Microsoft to come ahead on this hearing?
Ina Fried has the story at CNET in Microsoft to bring Hotmail onto the desktop:
This week, Microsoft served up the first test version of Windows Live Mail Desktop, a free Windows program that will let users manage multiple e-mail accounts. The software is designed to work with Windows Live Mail, the successor to Hotmail that is also in beta testing.
The move is a shift for the Hotmail business, which in the past, has charged users who wanted to read their mail using desktop software rather than a Web browser. Microsoft charged $20 and more for its paid service. It’s part of the company’s broader Windows Live effort and could eventually serve as a hub, not just for Windows Live Mail, but for other Microsoft Web-based services as well.
It works as a general purpose email client for any standard IMAP and POP3 mail services as well as Hotmail and Windows Live Mail. The beta is starting out with about 100 users and ramping up to 5,000 over the next few weeks according to the team blog which has more details.
I have to point out that you and I already have a Microsoft product that does most of this called Outlook Express. Well, it may not do Hotmail for you, but it does for me and therein lies a small story. In the early days after Microsoft’s acquisition of Hotmail they enabled free Hotmail access via OE and, as I recall, required one to request installation instructions via mail. I did so and the free access has been grandfathered for the few folks who actually used it through all the twists and turns in the Hotmail business model ever since. That’s also a good way to think of Live Mail Desktop – it’s Outlook Express brought up to date with a variety of modern features and free access to the Microsoft email venues.
Telis Demos interviews Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for the April 3rd edition of Fortune and unlike most executive interviews, some secrets are revealed:
Do you have an iPod?
No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children–in many dimensions they’re as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.
There was no word on whether he used Windows Live Family Safety Settings to enforce the Google edict, but his comment did rouse some amusement amongst commentators.
More importantly for those outside the Ballmer household:
Think you can you crack the iPod market?
It’s going to take an innovative proposition. In five years are people really going to carry two devices? One device that is their communication device, one device that is music? There’s going to be a lot of opportunities to get back in that game. We want to be in that game. Expect to see announcements from us in that area in the next 12 months.
Yet another hint, like the flurry of secret project rumors last week, that Microsoft is working on an “iPod killer” of some sort. As always, the question is whether Microsoft will finally build a portable device themselves.
