Microsoft News Tracker

Andrew Donoghue at CNET:

Only companies that are signed up to Microsoft’s Software Assurance plan are likely to adopt Office 2007 in the near future because IT managers find it extremely hard to justify an Office upgrade to their board, according to analyst group Gartner.

Speaking at the Midsize Enterprise Summit in Paris on Wednesday, Gartner analyst Annette Jump said research done by the group showed that only about 2 percent of companies that weren’t signed up for Microsoft’s Software Assurance plan had adopted for the previous version of the productivity suite–Office 2003.

Yikes, it’s in the noise level.

The software assurance plan ties companies into automatic upgrades of new Microsoft software at a discounted rate. The plan was updated late last year after coming under fire for allegedly locking users into buying unnecessary Windows upgrades.

And software assurance will in future provide exclusive, specialized operating system versions for businesses ([1], [2]).

Jump added that few companies will be in a rush to deploy Office 2007 immediately, as many have only recently installed Office 2003. Although Office 2007 will run on Windows XP, most companies will probably look to have Vista installed before migrating to it.

“Office 2007 will only catch 10 percent of Microsoft’s installed base by the middle of 2008, as only a small percentage will have moved to Vista by that point,” Jump added.

And despite Microsoft’s claims that Office 2007 will have improved graphical interfaces, the costs of supporting the suite through a help desk will actually increase in the short term as users become acquainted with new features, according to Gartner.

There’s more by following the link, but none of this is really a surprise except to the most starry-eyed. Microsoft’s upside on Office revenue continues to be limited by their own success.

At the Microsoft IEBlog - Enforcement takes the fight to the phishers:

Hi, I’m Aaron Kornblum, Internet Safety Enforcement Attorney at Microsoft, and a member of Microsoft’s global team committed to help fight cybercrime and protect our customers while they are online.
…
In this regard, I’m reporting a significant sentence handed down by a U.S. federal judge to the first global phisher investigated by Microsoft and referred to federal authorities for prosecution. The defendant in this case, Mr. Jayson Harris, 23, of Davenport, Iowa, was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment to be followed by a term of three years supervised release on each of two counts stemming from his earlier guilty plea to wire fraud and fraud and related activity in connection with access devices. The judge further ordered Harris to pay restitution in the amount of $57,294.07 and to pay a $200 assessment to the crime victims fund.

From January 2003 to June 2004, Mr. Harris operated a phishing scheme by creating a bogus MSN billing website and then sending e-mails to MSN customers requesting that they visit the website and update their accounts by providing credit card account numbers and other personal information. Mr. Harris provided a false incentive to these MSN customers that by using his (fake MSN) website, the customer would receive a 50% credit towards their next monthly bill from MSN. The spoofed website transmitted victim data to an email account controlled by Mr. Harris.

Microsoft’s Internet Safety Enforcement Team tracked Harris across the Internet pursuing a variety of leads in North America and Europe and uncovered this scheme, ultimately referring the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for investigation.

More details by following the link, but this is part of Microsoft’s Global Phishing Enforcement Initiative (GPEI).

That’s the opinion of the folks over at Business 2.0 Magazine who have Steve Ballmer featured prominently on their list of 10 People Who Don’t Matter:

Let’s face it: The head of the world’s biggest software company is a lame duck. Sure, Microsoft’s board still backs Ballmer as CEO, and he still has a core of loyal executives within the company. But with longtime partner Bill Gates stepping away from his day-to-day role to focus on saving the world, and Ray Ozzie playing the role of resident visionary, the CEO job just won’t be as much fun.

They apparently feel that it will be mighty tempting for Mr. Ballmer to just take his marbles and move on. There are some other controversial names on the list too, so it’s a great circulation builder for a slow summer day. Probably why I mentioned it too.