Gaurav's Blog

Surface

2007-11-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Adcenter Released

2006-05-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just released it new ad service called ad center that enables them to place advertisments on their msn network. At the seventh annual MSN® Strategic Account Summit, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) CEO Steve Ballmer will announce the launch of Microsoft adCenter, the company's online advertising platform now serving 100 percent of paid search traffic on Microsoft® online properties in the U.S. market. Ballmer is expected to recognize the advertising community for its pivotal support of Microsoft's rapidly expanding digital content network and announce that the company is set to deliver even richer opportunities for advertisers in the months to come. Ballmer's audience at the Strategic Account Summit will include more than 700 leading innovators in the advertising, marketing and media industries.

Microsoft new service

2006-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Microsoft new live service

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 business model for us on this is an indirect one," she said, describing it as part of a broader effort to build loyalty for the company's search services. Microsoft's initiative won't supplant Google Scholar or commercial databases used by researchers, but it does add a new element of competition, said Dean Giustini, a biomedical librarian at the University of British Columbia. A heavy Google Scholar user who writes a blog about that service, he was part of a group of librarians and others recently invited to the Microsoft campus to preview its new tool.

"It's a good sign that they're starting to involve librarians who are using these tools and trying to teach them," Giustini said. Giustini said he was disappointed to see that Windows Live Academic Search doesn't yet have a feature for seeing which articles cite a particular document, as Google Scholar does. He also raised questions about the robustness of Microsoft's infrastructure, noting that the broader MSN Search was down for four hours last week.

However, he cited positive aspects of Windows Live Academic Search, including a split screen for previewing the contents of a particular result.
That preview pane is one of the ways Microsoft is differentiating its service from Google Scholar, said Microsoft's Tiedt. Among other things, Microsoft's service is unique in indexing a selection of journals from academic publishing powerhouse Reed Elsevier, she said.
Microsoft is also working with industry association CrossRef and other academic publishers on the service.
ON THE WEB
Windows Live Academic Search: academic.live.com

Office 12

2006-03-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Office 12

This year Microsoft also plans to launch an updated and revamped version of its popular office suite called the Office 2007 intended to rejuvenate sales and stave off competitors. Traditionally Office productivity suites are Microsoft cash products that make up of almost 1/3rd of its total revenues. With greater focus on collaboration, office 2007 boasts of new feature that will help customer to be more efficient in their work(.

The new office products will feature a completely revamped user interface. There will dramatic changes in the way things are designed and displayed on the screen. For years, Microsoft has been trying to add new features to Office without realizing that many customers still remained unaware of the product improvement taking place. Recent study showed that every 8 of 10 feature demanded by the customers in the new version where actually present in the e older version, people just dint know they existed.

Indeed, Office has become a case study for feature creep--the phenomenon in which a simple technology becomes complicated and unmanageable through the addition of new features. Office, which once had 100 commands neatly organized into menus, ballooned to contain some 1,500 commands located in scores of menus, toolbars and dialog boxes.

Having sensed that the software has reached the limits of functionality, Microsoft has been preparing its most radical overhaul ever for Word, Excel and friends. With Office 12, due next year, the company plans to do away with a system that depends on people remembering which series of menus lead to a particular command. Instead, users will see a "ribbon" of different commands above their document, with the options changing depending on the task.

The beauty of the new system is that it works with you i.e. the minute you begin to work, the ribbons (adaptive menus) change according to tasks needed to be finished. When editing in Word, for example, the ribbon presents only those choices that have directly to do with formatting content. And even then, the goal is not to present every possible option, but rather the couple dozen choices that represent the majority of the clicks people typically make. Thus it is a totally new design that will eventually help people to be better at what they do.

In addition to the ribbon, Microsoft is intorducing a number off other design concepts to help people find more of the features buried inside the office tools. One of the new ideas is the galleries concept in which range of more complex frequently used editin choice are offered as click options. Those who don’t find a template they want can always create custom alternative suing dialog bix. Microsoft is also adding a live preview option that displays the impact of such choices prior to accepting a doc change.

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Strategy

The move to new office could help Microsoft in its perennial quest to come up with enough reasons to prompt current Office users to upgrade, and might also stem some defections to rivals, such as OpenOffice. At the same time, it risks alienating some loyalists, as well as prompting some businesses to question the cost of retraining those accustomed to the current Office.

The stakes are high: Office has long been one of the company's most profitable products. Microsoft's Information Worker unit, which includes Office and related tools, generated more than $11 billion in revenue--more than one third of Microsoft's total revenue in fiscal year 2005, according to the company.

But the growth in revenue has slowed as some customers delay upgrading to new versions, and others switch to "good enough" Office alternatives.

As the company continues to face threat of competition (Hyper competition), It is necessary that it add new features that customer want to see, new way to do things, however keeping the design simple, easy to use, elegant requiring less customer training to learn new products. The key is to be like apple that provides integration between products, which are easy to use, that are user friendly and fun in short.

I hope that the new office address this issues …………………………let wait an watch…..:)

New article source: Microsoft.com, news.com.

Microsoft Live

2006-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Live

With increased competition from Google, Yahoo and desire to keep up with new technologies like AJAX etc. Microsoft started what is called windows live services.

What is live?

well live is the windows operating system on the web...... yes! you heard me right, the operating system on the web thus with internet today being a global platform for communication, windows live will enable you to do what you used to do on windows from anywhere in the world and from any platform, any time. Thus what ever the operating base is, if you have access to internet you can perform all what you can do on windows over the live services.

Live services: Using a service (Internet) to deliver Applications anywhere, anytime

History:

November 1, 2005, Microsoft announced that it would release a set of services beginning in 2006 under the Windows Live brand. For the most part, the Windows Live services match up with previous projects from MSN, which had been pulled into the Windows division at Microsoft during a late 2005 reorganization. Microsoft executives such as Bill Gates, David Cole, Ray Ozzie, Steve Ballmer, and Jim Allchin determined how to bring the company's Windows, online, and mobile experiences together in ways that were seamless but didn't run into any of the debatable problems presented by previous integration strategies around Internet Explorer (IE) and Windows Media Player (WMP).

At a conceptual level, Windows Live consists of a number of layers, most of which build on top of each other. At the bottom of this structure is a set of foundational technologies, such as billing, identity, and storage, that cut across everything else Microsoft is doing with Windows Live. Microsoft Points, the micro payment system that Microsoft first developed for the Xbox 360 version of Xbox Live is also found at this level. Thus the live services will now include windows live, office live, safety live, live local, messenger live ( communicate without the need to install msn messenger), live XBOX, live office ( word , excel etc on the web ..), live jobs, live domains,, live bookmark, live mail ( outlook express style web client), many many more…..

Here is some screen shots of live

Thus what comes out of this is that there is shift in Microsoft strategy to include a broad array of services under its wings that makes it difficult for customers to switch service. Thus increasingly Microsoft is focusing on product differentiation, that addresses client wants, desires. Further the company is increasingly making in road in the digital media segment with many of its software trying to tap in living rooms make windows a digital media center. Thus, the centerpiece of the strategy is Microsoft's Windows-powered Media PC, which allows for managing music, photos, movies, and recorded and live television via a desktop or portable computer. For the rest, yet, if anything, Microsoft's move should scare the heck out of competitors. I mean, we've been here before, right? Microsoft was way behind in the Web browsers and went on to nearly drive the competitors out of business. Microsoft clearly wants to be better than most others. What's scary is that Microsoft has the resources to do it. Microsoft's 2004 research and development budget was $7.7 billion. Apple's was $489 million. (Source: fool.com).

What will determine the success for most companies?

A company will be successful and have complete dominance, only when it is able to provide a gamut of services that the customers want.

If one of these high tech companies is able to capture the customer loyalty, then the network effect will come in to play leading to the dominance by that company. This is very much seen in the operating system industry (windows), mp3 player segment (IPOD), digital recording (TIVO), search (Google), mail (yahoo) etc. thus Microsoft broad strategy can be visualized as providing one stop shop for all customers needs

article : winsupersite.com, fool.com etc

2006-02-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Windows Vista.

As I update new stuff to this blog about microsoft, one can see a strategy formulating behind such moves, to take on rivals like Apple, Yahoo, etc

Microsoft and Windows Vista (Next generation operating system)

The most noticeable of all will be the release of the Next generation of Windows operating system called the Windows Vista that is touted as being the most secure, advanced and user friendly computer operating system that is rich in graphics and audio features. As always, Microsoft has summarized using three simple points, and with Windows Vista, those three points are "connected," "clear," and "confident". Here's what the company means by this:

Connected: Windows Vista will seamlessly connect you with the people, information and devices you need to interact with, quickly and in a really straightforward way. No computer sits alone anymore, according to the company, and you're connected to the Web, and to devices, you want to contact people and to share things.

Confident: Thanks to spy ware and other electronic threats, people don't trust their computers anymore. Windows Vista will give people more confidence in their PC and their ability to get more out of it. Microsoft tells me it's going to "take care of things" and make things more discoverable in Windows Vista. It enables a new level of confidence in the security and

reliability of your PC and in your ability to get the most out of it.

Clear: This refers both to the clarity of the user interface, which now sports a glass-like sheen that is, appropriately enough, called Aero Glass, and to the ways in which Windows Vista lets you more clearly access your own information. Instead of making you adapt to the way the computer structures data, Window Vista is far more dynamic, and far more personal. Windows Vista introduces clear ways to organize and use your information to focus on what matters to you,

( this picture is a real screen image where you can do a 3D flip of open window)

With vista, new features such as new user experience, security, search capabilities, new IE 7 with never crash guarantee, new application, parental control, faster networking, speech recognition and many many new features.

Image source: winsupersite.com

Here is the windows vista video - higlhy recommended

Thus, as Microsoft gets ready with the new windows operating system, the strategy is not market dominance but rather to fend of rivalry from apple Mac machines and other open source systems , thus with tremendus focus on security, I would probably assume that such product differentiation will enable to determine the future position.

The key to microsoft success is that it should build products that are crash free, virus free, and stable...............

M i c r o s o f t: (symbol: msft): Will the G r o w t h continue…………..

2006-01-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

M i c r o s o f t: (symbol: msft): Will the G r o w t h continue…………..

Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, has enjoyed quite some publicity since past many years. Though Microsoft gets a lot of bad publicity for its faulty software, one can not ignore that it has been successful at bringing the PC on every desktop. Though some might not agree!…..however, fact is that today more than 90 percent of the world computers are using Microsoft windows operating system, windows server, Microsoft office productivity suite, etc. Microsoft is ubiquitous. It is every where be on the PC, handled, in your living rooms, in the games console market and the list goes on. However, with tough competition from Yahoo, Apple noticeably, Microsoft has been developing new strategies and products, which will be seen in the second half 2006 that will help maintain its market dominance. Many analysts yet maintain a buy recommendation for Microsoft. Some key Microsoft Financial information is given below – source: yahoo financials.

Market Cap (intraday): 281.02B

Enterprise Value (25-Jan-06)³: 240.43B

Trailing P/E (ttm, intraday): 22.30

Forward P/E (fye 30-Jun-07) ¹: 17.37

PEG Ratio (5 yr expected): 1.62

Price/Sales (ttm): 6.93

Price/Book (mrq): 5.79

Enterprise Value/Revenue (ttm)³: 5.96

Enterprise Value/EBITDA (ttm)³: 13.398

Profitability

Profit Margin (ttm): 31.90%

Operating Margin (ttm): 42.19%

Management Effectiveness

Return on Assets (ttm): 12.85%

Return on Equity (ttm): 20.71%

Income Statement

Revenue (ttm): 40.34B

Revenue Per Share (ttm): 3.737

Qtrly Revenue Growth (yoy): 6.00%

Gross Profit (ttm): 33.59B

EBITDA (ttm): 17.95B

Net Income Avl to Common (ttm): 12.87B

Diluted EPS (ttm): 1.18

Qtrly Earnings Growth (yoy): 24.20%

Balance Sheet

Total Cash (mrq): 40.06B

Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 3.763

Total Debt (mrq): 0

Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 0

Current Ratio (mrq): 2.927

Book Value Per Share (mrq): 4.54

Share Price Info - Friday – 27^th Jan

Last Trade: 26.45

Trade Time: 1:59PM ET

Change: 0.05 (0.19%)

Prev Close: 26.40

Open: 26.57

Bid: 26.45 x 13300

Ask: 26.46 x 37100

1y Target Est: 30.88

Day's Range: 26.31 - 26.72

52wk Range: 23.82 - 28.25

Volume: 41,666,625

Avg Vol (3m): 64,965,500

Market Cap: 281.55B

P/E (ttm): 22.34

EPS (ttm): 1.18

Div & Yield: 0.36 (1.40%)

Microsoft….with a good position in terms of assets and liabilities… (noticeably ..zero debt), looks favorable.

What I believe will fuel the future growth for Microsoft is the introduction of it next generation or as Microsoft calls next wave of technological advancement in computing products. Microsoft has been working continuously to meet it deadlines on the new windows vista expected to be out in second half of 2006, along with this there will be an array of new technologies like windows anti virus, windows anti spy ware, new programming language - XAML, new managed programming model called winfx, new msn portal – live.com, a new outlook style web based mail client called windows mail, new windows movie maker, windows player, windows graphic foundation – Avalon, new communication services for windows, and many many more…………………

2006-01-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

Well here is a start for a person who never quite believed in blogging.

However, my initiative to join this revolution starts with this blog on Microsoft. I will be keeping a tab on all the news that happen as we go along. Do stop by and chek out the stuff....