Microsoft News Tracker

It’s good news for Microsoft’s Windows cash cow when PC sales are good, and Amanda Cantrell at the AP reports that 1Q US PC retail sales were zooming based on data from market analysis firm, Current Analysis:

Computer makers enjoyed strong year-over-year growth during the first calendar quarter this year, according to new U.S. retail sales data.
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Of the companies and retail stores that Current Analysis tracks, first quarter laptop sales grew 43.6 percent over the previous year, while first quarter desktop sales grew 16.3.

The caveat is necessary because they don’t track direct sellers like the top vendor, Dell, and they don’t track all retail sales. Some company numbers: HP up 29%, HP Compaq up 69%, Gateway up 166% in laptops. The growth seems to be the result of falling prices across the board, with laptop prices in particular down 20% on average. One other factoid: “PCs running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center OS now dominate the market, accounting for 60 percent of desktops sold in U.S. retail.”

Meanwhile in instant messaging, comScore networks released a study claiming that Microsoft’s MSN Messenger is the number 1 client worldwide:

The MSN Messenger application has the strongest penetration worldwide, with 61 percent of worldwide IM users utilizing the application in February. MSN Messenger is also dominant in Latin America, reaching more than 90 percent of IM users, and in Europe and Asia Pacific, reaching more than 70 percent of IM users in each region. North America is the most competitive IM market, with MSN Messenger, AOL/Aim and Yahoo! Messenger each garnering between 27 percent and 37 percent of IM users in February.

Also interesting were the differences in IM use by geography with Latin America being the IM leader.

Finally, the bad news for Microsoft was Internet search. Mary Crane at Forbes:

According to the latest data released by comScore, a global market research provider, Google continues to dominate the online search market worldwide.

Google’s market share increased to 60.3% in February, from 60% the month before, and gained most of its market share from Yahoo! and Microsoft MSN, reports Bear Stearns analyst Robert S. Peck in a Monday research note.

Not a big change, but no one seems to be able to dent Google’s share so far.

As we mentioned yesterday, Microsoft bundled an ActiveX function change related to the Eolas patent suit with the Internet Explorer security fixes for this month’s “Patch Tuesday.” That’s producing some complaints as Gregg Keizer reports at TechWeb:

By packaging a functionality change for Internet Explorer with a needed security update, Microsoft has alienated some IT pros, security vendors complained Wednesday.
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“Microsoft often bundles non-security-related code in security updates,” said Mike Murray, director of research at vulnerability management vendor nCircle. “Little optimizations and that kind of thing. But I don’t remember them ever bundling a functionality update or, as in this case, removing functionality, with a security bulletin.”

The inclusion of the ActiveX changes “makes everything a mess” for companies deploying and testing Microsoft’s monthly patches, Murray said. “I’ve talked to some of our customers, and they’re at the point where they’re pulling out their hair.

Instead, Microsoft should have separated the IE ActiveX changes from the security fixes. “They easily could have deployed it as a separate patch or rolled it into a service pack,” said Murray.

It’s a particular problem because the security “megapatch” for Internet Explorer resolved a number of critical vulnerabilities:

The large number of vulnerabilities covered by the bulletin precludes any finesse in mitigating against attack, Symantec concluded, and instead recommended that one option for companies unable to install the fixes is to “disable Internet Explorer until patches can be rolled out.” Other advice included setting the browser’s security settings to “High” and/or restricting browsing to corporate intranet and other trusted sites.

Symantec and other security companies raised the alert in part because 3 of the 7 critical flaws described in the bulletin are either currently being exploited or have been the target of published proof-of-concept code.

There is a separate “compatibility patch” that undoes the ActiveX function change, but the patch-counterpatch scenario apparently doesn’t have folks jumping for joy.

As we mentioned previously, there’s a big dog and pony show going on preceding the visit of People’s Republic of China President Hu Jintao to the USA next week and Microsoft is doing its part by signing agreements with big Chinese OEM’s. Today there was yet another one:

Founder Technology Group Corp., one of China’s largest PC makers, today signed a genuine Windows® cooperative engagement agreement with Microsoft Corp. According to the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on joint marketing, sales and training programs to promote the use of genuine versions of Microsoft® software on Founder-branded personal computer products for the Chinese market. This agreement further demonstrates the strong commitment and significant progress the two companies have made toward protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) and delivering a more secure, stable computing environment for their customers.

Founder senior executives including Wei Xin, chairman of Founder Group, Founder Technology’s parent company, and Qi Dongfeng, president of Founder Technology, attended a signing ceremony at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., today.

“Founder is committed to delivering greater benefit, enhanced security and peace of mind to our users by ensuring that our product lines are installed with genuine software,” Qi said. “Founder will purchase licenses of Simplified Chinese versions of Windows worth $250 million over the next three years. The agreement we signed today with Microsoft broadens our industry-leading position and demonstrates our ongoing efforts to protect intellectual property rights in the Chinese market.”

In 2005, Founder sold 2.5 million PCs, solidifying its market position as China’s second-largest PC maker.

Hmm, $250/(3 x 2.5) = $33 per PC. Maybe it is more than a PR stunt.

Update: Todd Bishop points out the spectre at the feast via Ingrid Marson’s CNET article, “The business of Linux in China:”

At LinuxWorld in Boston last week, a Chinese government-sponsored organization enthusiastically handed out bags emblazoned with “Beijing: Asia’s Linux Capital.”

The contingent of Chinese companies at the conference was so strong that LinuxWorld held a special “Linux in Beijing” day, where different companies discussed how to boost the use of Linux on servers, desktops and mobile devices.

It’s a sign of a changing landscape for open source in China. While the government has publicly voiced support for open source and has funded a number of initiatives, there have been few large-scale migrations to the software in the government sector. This is expected to change, however, now that the Chinese government has mandated the use of locally produced software in its departments. In addition, its agencies must replace unlicensed copies of Microsoft software, now that China has joined the World Trade Organization.

Sony just announced new Vaio PC models ([1], [2]) complete with “Vista capable” stickers. There will shortly be many more from all the OEMs.

Mary Jo Foley speculates on what the Vista delay will mean for the nominally biennial follow-ons Fiji and Vienna as well as the Windows server operating systems.

Microsoft posted and then a pulled a massive 313 page Windows Vista Product Guide.

New Microsoft hire, Niall Kennedy, recently of Technorati, discloses that “Live.com is the new default home page for users of the Internet Explorer 7 and the Windows Vista operating system.”

Microsoft’s UACBlog explains Vista Parental Controls.

Brandon LeBlanc explains the new Vista Windows PC Accelerators:

Windows SuperFetch™ is a memory management innovation in Windows Vista that helps make your PC consistently responsive by tracking what applications are used most on a given machine and intelligently preloading these applications into memory.

Windows ReadyBoost™ (formerly code-named “EMD”) makes PCs running genuine Windows Vista more responsive by using flash memory on a USB drive, SD Card, Compact Flash, or other memory form factor to boost system performance.

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Windows ReadyDrive™ (formerly code-named “Piton”) enables Windows Vista PCs equipped with a hybrid hard drive to boot up faster, resume from hibernate in less time, and preserve battery power. Hybrid hard drives are a new type of hard disk that integrates non-volatile flash memory with a traditional hard drive.

Microsoft is working on a Vista only product for amateur musicians called Monaco that competes with Apple’s GarageBand.

And last but not least, the Gartner Group has some Vista adoption news for Microsoft, but it’s hard to tell whether it is good (Gartner: Half of Current PCs Will Show All of Vista):

Microsoft’s Windows Vista will run on just about any PC available today, but it will only show its true colors on about half of them, according to a new report from Gartner.

or bad (Half of Corporate PCs Can’t Handle Vista):

A new research report from the Gartner Group finds that about half of all corporate PC’s don’t have what it takes to run all the features in Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Vista operating system when it becomes available, suggesting that companies will, to a great extent, have to roll out Vista as they acquire new computer systems, rather than installing the new operating system on existing PCs.

Frankly, Gartner seems obsessed with the unlikely idea of large numbers of folks upgrading existing hardware to Vista.

As expected, Microsoft launched Windows Live Academic Search last night. Yes, it’s labeled as a beta, but what self respecting Web 2.0 offering isn’t these days? Todd Bishop has more at the Seattle P-I:

Microsoft Corp. is courting researchers and other academics with a specialized Web search service, its latest effort to catch up to market leader Google.

Windows Live Academic Search was launched in preliminary form Tuesday night. It lets researchers search the contents of academic journals to find abstracts and, if they subscribe to the journals, get the documents from the publishers’ sites.

The service, which for now focuses on computer science, electrical engineering and physics, includes tools for researchers, such as the ability to quickly extract information for citations. But it’s also open to the public, and some library systems give patrons access to the journals included in the index.

It’s another example of Microsoft following Google into a segment of the search market. The search leader already has a similar service called Google Scholar.

Windows Live Academic Search service won’t include paid advertisements, and Microsoft isn’t planning to make money directly from the service, said Microsoft’s Danielle Tiedt, general manager for Windows Live Premium Search.

The press release is here.