Microsoft News Tracker

Nancy Gohring reports that Apple’s iPhone has pulled ahead on Windows Mobile in US smartphone sales:

Even after being on the market for less than half a year, more iPhones sold in the fourth quarter than Windows Mobile phones in the United States, according to research from Canalys.

Canalys researchers estimate that the iPhone had 28 percent of the U.S. converged-device market in the fourth quarter of 2007. Research in Motion, with 41 percent, had the largest share of the market. Windows Mobile phones had a 21 percent share of devices sold in the quarter, falling into third place behind Apple.

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Yesterday it was announced that Microsoft, along with other leading technology companies, had joined the board of the OpenID foundation:

The OpenID Foundation today announced that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) have joined as its first corporate board members.

With these companies’ deep expertise in Internet and security technology, the OpenID Foundation strengthens the industry-wide effort to empower users with portable Web identities, or OpenIDs. This effort helps ensure the evolution of an open and interoperable Internet that helps people take control of how their personal information is shared on-line and aids on-line businesses to attract and retain more users by simplifying and securing the management of digital identities.

The OpenID Foundation was formed in June 2007 to support and promote the technology developed by the OpenID community.

A universal identification mechanism would cure a number of current Internet ills, but it will require more than board membership by some big name Internet companies to make it a reality. Only when OpenID authorization becomes a widely available option will there be an incentive for the average user to sign up. Until then it’s just another userid of which to keep track.

Microsoft yesterday revealed that they had purchased Caligari, a developer of 3D modeling software:

Microsoft has bought Caligari, a developer of 3D modeling software, in a move that could help enrich the graphics experience in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth mapping system.

Caligari started making 3D modeling and animation software for the Amiga computer in the mid-1980s. Its signature tool, called trueSpace, has a user interface that makes it easy to build complex 3D animations, according to an entry on the Virtual Earth blog on Wednesday announcing the acquisition.

Terms were not specified.