Europeans Fine Microsoft $700 Million Over Lack of Browser Choice

The technology behemoth that is Microsoft has been fined more than $AU700 million for failing to offer it’s OS users a choice of different internet browsers in Europe.

The company was found to have breached its own 2009 commitment to introduce a pop-up screen offering users a choice of browser, rather than just Internet Explorer. The pop-up was introduced as part of an earlier European Union competition case, but was dropped in a Windows 7 update in early 2011.

Microsoft claims the omission was simply the result of a “technical error”. The tech-behemoth was fined 561 million euros – $AU711 million – taking the total cost of its regulatory troubles in Europe to 2.15 billion euros – $AU2.75 billion – since 2002.

The European Commission, which acts as competition regulator across the 27-member European Union, said it found Microsoft broke its undertaking between May 2011 and July 2012. The Commission said it takes such settlement commitments very seriously :: Read the full article »»»»

OOPS! Microsoft Posts First Ever Loss, Half a Billion Dollars Misplaced?

That behemoth that is Microsoft – under the steerage of Steve Ballmer – has reported its FIRST EVER quarterly loss as a publicly listed company.

The company misplaced almost half a billion dollars – $US492 million – in the fourth quarter due to a massive $US6.2 billion write-down related to its 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, a digital advertising firm aimed at helping Microsoft compete against Google and others.

The news is dire, not deathly though, Microsoft still posted an annual profit of $US16.98 billion and said the results reflected “solid revenue growth and rigorous cost discipline”.

In stark contrast, that other behemoth, Google, has reported an 11 per cent jump in second quarter profit to $US2.79 billion. Google said the result was boosted by a 21 per cent jump in revenues from its internet sites.

Apples Low Returns

Apple has once again rewarded it’s shareholders amply,  its share price surged to new highs – above $US500 – last week. There is, though, one part of the iPhone behemoths’s business that isn’t exactly humming along. Apple’s management of it’s pile of cash, now exceeding $US100 billion, has historically been extremely unimaginative. Investors are bombarded with offers from banks, offering yields of as much as 1 percent – as high as 1.5% for 2 years fixed –  Apple may be settling for less for its cash stash.

Apple’s war chest has grown steadily since 2005, when it had just $9 billion in reserves. As as the end of 2010, Apple’s $60 billion stockpile gave it more cash than any other non-financial company in the U.S. Amusingly-  mid 2011 - Appleinsider reported that Apples the $76 Billion in cash outweighed the U.S. governments $US73 billion in total operating cash. Comparisons with fellow hoarders in the tech-world – Google and Microsoft  - indicate that in this area at least, the most valuable publicly traded American company is probably under-performing. Read the full article »»»»

On the Surface: The Samsung – Microsoft Collaborative Interface Revolution

In the techy world of übergadgets, many products don’t make the transition from idea to retail, vapor ware is the name given to these forlorn product ideas and prototypes that simply disappear into the ether. With an incredibly popular demonstration earlier this year at tech expo CES, ‘Surface‘ seemed too good to be true, and looked like one of those ideas that just may end up being an ether dweller.

Thankfully ‘Surface‘ hasn’t been relegated to the trash can of design, Samsung has announced this week that ‘Surface SUR40‘ is available for pre-order.

With ‘Surface‘ Microsoft and Samsung have delivered more than just a new touch screen, ‘Surface‘ is a new way of collaborating.

Samsung worked closely with Microsoft, quickly evolving the Surface from a frumpy gadget to it’s current thin design, and with the most powerful vision-based capabilities in the LCD market, Surface shines. READ MORE