Microsoft News Tracker

OK, it’s in Australia where the Zune isn’t available, but it still seems a little awkward to Use Microsoft to Win Apple Products:

Microsoft is dangling prizes made by arch-nemesis Apple to entice Australian web surfers to give its online search products a second chance.

Through its local joint venture with the Nine Network, ninemsn, Microsoft recently completed a full revamp of Live Search to improve results and integrate video, images, news and maps into search queries.

But in what is perhaps a sign of desperation given Google’s growing market share dominance, ninemsn is running a new Live Search promotion - Secret Search - offering surfers the chance to win prizes including the iPod Nano, Shuffle and Touch just for conducting searches.

Maybe Microsoft ought to try that in the USA too? No wacky Live Search Club games, no complicated Live Search cashback from retail purchases, just random prizes of good quality for searchers. Hit the rest of the article for an update on Live Search in Australia where Microsoft is ahead of Yahoo.

Microsoft Virtual Earth evangelist Chris Pendleton reveals that "Ask.com has migrated off of their mapping platform and onto Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform." No terms were announced, but Ask.com joins "YellowPages.com, Superpages.com, and WhitePages.com to name a few" who are using Virtual Earth.

Microsoft’s Albany consumer software subscription service is now ready for prime time as Microsoft Equipt:

Microsoft Equipt offers consumers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with people they care about most; and Office Live Workspace, a new service from Microsoft that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions.

Microsoft Equipt is $69.99 (U.S.) estimated retail price for a one-year renewable subscription. Each subscription will be good for three home PCs, making Microsoft Equipt ideal for families and individuals with one or several computers.

Microsoft Equipt will be sold in nearly 700 Circuit City stores in the U.S. starting mid-July 2008.

Ignoring the "Live" freebies, a visit to Amazon reveals that you can buy a OneCare subscription (3 licenses) for $21.95 per year leaving $48.04 annually to amortize the $111.49 that Amazon charges for Home and Student 2007 (3 licenses). That works out to a payoff of  2.3 years for buying the software upfront instead of getting an Equipt subscription and you will be able to use it forever. Of course, you won’t get the version upgrades with an upfront purchase, but how many consumers really care about that and if new versions only come every 4-5 years it’s a wash. On the face of it, Equipt isn’t a real consumer savings standout.

I would also observe that the marketing plan apparently isn’t complete since Circuit City could hardly be the exclusive retail source. It will also be interesting see if Microsoft can get Equipt preloaded by OEM’s on new PCs some of which currently ship with Home and Student trial offers. All it really takes is money to get that done.

All in all, while there may be a pony for Microsoft in a consumer software subscription service, Equipt as announced hardly seems to be it.

The deal that would not die is back for another episode and terrifying Microsoft shareholders everywhere. This time the story is that Microsoft Seeks Partners For a New Run at Yahoo:

Microsoft Corp., positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business, has approached other media companies in recent days about joining it in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup, say people familiar with the discussions.

Microsoft has held discussions with Time Warner Inc. and News Corp., among others, say people involved in the talks. In the past, Microsoft has floated an arrangement under which it would acquire Yahoo’s search business and another partner, such as News Corp.’s MySpace or Time Warner’s AOL, would combine forces with what remained of Yahoo.

This effort does not seem to have been too successful as yet since Microsoft is said to have canceled a meeting with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock presumably because they had not yet found a buddy. The takeaway, however, is that Steve Ballmer apparently just won’t give up on a Yahoo search deal. When will the shareholders do themselves a favor and stage an intervention?