Might be a little late for a post CES entry, but its Bill G man! He's leaving Microsoft to go fulltime to the foundation and do some humanitarian work. So that's 50 billion dollars to fight poverty. Here is a video they played at CES 2008 (Bill G's last keynote) , it's a nice video they made..

When Apple publically touted the iPhone as a multi-touch revolution, Microsoft was quick to rebuttal -  The Microsoft Surface was announced in May 2007. It's been a long time since then and the iPhone has taken over many pockets. Whereas Microsoft has not traditionally ventured far beyond the PC ;the Surface more or less sticks with Bill G's idea of a "Computer in every home".

It is interesting to note that the Multitouch technology is actually 25 years old. No one really bothered to use it. It was only after Jobs unveiled to the world - his idea of a phone, did the rest of them catch up with the purpose of multitouch. But then,the Microsoft Surface has been under development since early 2003; way before the iPhone rumours started. The price point upon launch is expected to be between $5000-$10,000 and is expected to drop making it viable from a consumer point.

Here is a parody of the Microsoft Surface (found on YouTube)

It is expected that future versions of Windows Mobile and the Windows Operating System will have support for Multi-touch. In recent months, many display vendors have launched Multitouch capable products, thereby extending the current productivity offered on tablet-pc's and bring newer levels of interactivity.

Want to know the secret behinds el-jobso's oh-so-successful keynotes? its "Boom". Watch Steve Boom across his keynotes!

First the link to the original piece from the Gulf News [published in Dubai] : http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/01/26/10184849.html and written By Scott Shuey, Chief Business Reporter

The author talks about Acer lacking style and slapping on a Ferrari sticker to a laptop to justify superior design. The article revolves around Dell, Alienware and Acer  = 3 companies that the author blames for lack of style in their products. Yet an article about styling has no mention of Apple what-so-ever or IBM/Lenovo (for the lack of it). The article goes on to talk about a so-called "Inner Beauty" of over-clocking, etc  and again fails to bring up Apple [for the lack of power yet full of design]. Further as i quote from the original article:

 "Acer or any of the other brands, odds are that the chassis, ie the main body of your computer, rolled off an assembly line owned by Quanta, Compal or Wistron, just to name the big three. All the laptop companies do is insert the components, again often made by third parties such as Intel, ATI or Hitachi. Then they slap a few stickers on it and send it on its way. In a system like that, there is really no chance for anything as creative as style."

I would like to ask the author once again! Where is Apple?? Didn’t the author know that Apple products are also made off assembly lines in China and their beloved iMac and MacBooks also come of the lines @ Quanta and the like!! Yet have superior design [but sometimes lacking in the so-called inner beauty].

What i wish to raise out of this entry is to ask the author this: Where is Apple in a report on Design? And I’d like to inform the author that 90% of all computer components come off assembly lines in China or Taiwan, don’t blame them for the bad designs.

Sometimes you just cant allow a Business guy to give the tech talks! [Dontcha look at me... i'm a tech guy talking business - rubish {none the less}] (but hey! i'm accepting it)

 But on a note to reconcile with the author, "Is it really necessary to try to impose style on a laptop at all?" - No,but again look @ apple - no imposing designs yet superior usability.

Disclaimer: Btw, I do not like Apple. My OS Ratings are - Linux/*NIX(BSD) >>Windows / Vista >>> Mac OS X. And why don't I like Mac - coz its closed source (just like Microsoft products) yet they somehow make you feel priviledged to use their products and project a completely baseless superiority image. And why do i like Windows over Mac - coz i don't agree with the general demonizing of Microsoft as compared to Apple. and obviously Linux Rulz man!

Not bad, but for the (US) economy. Its ‘investor relationship’ time & nothings more exciting than analyzing Microsoft (things get interesting when this is done by an engineer <in the making> and not an economist) 

Here is what Microsoft’s second quarter earnings (ending Dec 31, 2007) look like in brief:
16.3 Billion Dollars in revenue as compared to 12.5 billion (Q2 2006), that’s a lot of fallen trees. 

But what is eye catching in their form 10Q is the warranty settlement part (remember the rrod?)
Microsoft spent 86 Million $ on warranty settlement between July 1, 2007 - September 30,2007 as compared to 189 Million @ Between September 30,2007 to December 31,2007.
Although over 1 Billion dollars has been allocated (of which 861 Million remain) specifically to address the RROD issues, a 100% increase in claims does not look good.

The Online Service business does not seem very rosy either, although Microsoft managed to rake in 863 Million dollars in revenue (625M Q2-06), the operating loss of this division seems to be widening at a faster rate. The division recorded an operating loss of 248 Million dollars (116M Q2-06).

On the positive side, its Client and Business Divisions are seeing good growth. Entertainment Division is doing well (positive income for 3 quarters now) 334 Million for Q2-07.

What does not look good about the Entertainment Division is their revenue growth - or to be very frank - the Wii eating the 360's growth.

Revenue: 3.06 Billion vs 2.9 Billion (Q02-07 vs Q02-06), whereas 4.9 Billion vs 3.9 Billion (H1-07 vs H1-06).
As you may have notice from the above numbers, the quarterly growth during the holiday season (as seen in the respective second quarters) remains constant. This could in a way be attributed to the rising popularity of the Wii gaming console. [or conveniently blamed on the subprime crisis and lower consumer spending]

What should Microsoft do?
* Needs to get its online offering ramped up
   - Fix Live, Live Search, Live Mail.
* Become good @ advertising
   - Seek newer markets - location based advertising (mobile and other devices), rich streaming advertisements (free content), and text advertisements on web sites
* Fix Vista (although i haven’t had any issue's)
   - Better treatment of Ultimate users (remember Ultimate Extras)
* Diversify into Devices - PMP's, custom UMPC's
* Revamp Windows Mobile


Official Filings can be found at the Microsoft Web Site or at my SkyDrive

Finally setup a sweet BlogEngine on my hosting account , i'm loving this.