14 DAY TRIAL // With all the talks surrounding security that have been going on recently in all domains, the Redmond giant couldn't have neglected this category and decided to invest in it some serious money in order to keep its users and clients happy. That being said, Monday saw Microsoft announcing a series of initiatives that have at heart the continuing of help given to its partners, for designing effective and profitable business models, at the same time striving to stay on top of the security landscape.
A little boasting was in order if the job was to be started on the right foot, so the corporation had research firm IDC conduct a survey that had as subject 349 (why not 350?) resellers in the United States and Britain and, of course, the conclusion drawn was that Microsoft security partners were "often more profitable than partners that sell other vendors' security partners", as the press release did not fail to mention.
Mark Hassall, the Microsoft Forefront Security Partner Marketing Director, gave an interview to the corporation's PressPass, in which he mentioned the size of the program he was involved with: "We have over 6,000 partners enrolled in the Security Software Advisor program, which allows partners to earn up to 30 percent in advisor fees when they help drive deployment of Forefront-based security solutions. And we have over 1,000 partners in the Security Solutions Competency, which is now the fastest growing competency in the Microsoft portfolio. We are committed to continued investment in our security partner programs with partner profitability as the focus."
Not too bad, I might say, it's definitely a window of opportunity worth exploring for Microsoft, the enlarging of its partner base by having a survey say that it is the best.
Mac and Windows aren't the closest friends to the best of my knowledge, but if it's profitable, it's going to be delivered no matter how much stepping on pride is involved. That's why the Mac users were given the best present on Tuesday, the official launch of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. The Macworld Conference & Expo 2008 was the site where the announcement was made. The second "location" where Mac users had to have felt like kings was the web page dedicated by the Redmond based company to their needs, Mactopia.
"We developed Office 2008 for Mac as a comprehensive productivity suite that also helps people simplify their work. [?] To complement the deep set of new and improved features, we redesigned the interface so that it is truly easier to use. Even Office beginners can create great-looking documents very quickly. And, at the core, we focused on delivering reliable compatibility so that users can confidently share documents across platforms", said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft.
There are three versions of Office 2008 for Mac to be made available by the end of the first quarter of the year: the standard Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, priced somewhere between $239.95 for the upgrade from a previous version and $399.95 for the full retail version. The second option is Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition, priced at $149.95, and the last one to be available will be Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, at $299.95 for the upgrade version and $499.95 for the full retail version.
A very profitable deal was set up on Wednesday between Microsoft Corp. and EDGAR Online, in order to bring relevant advertising to the latter's audience and content to the MSN portal. March will be the first month to see the Microsoft advertising displayed on the EDGAR site and MSN Money will most likely receive its share later in the year, a date was not mentioned for the event.
"EDGAR Online attracts a highly targeted audience with its deep business and financial content, and coupling that audience with Microsoft's advertising technologies is going to be a winning combination for advertisers", Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft said. "The inclusion of EDGAR Online as a syndicated advertising partner site and the addition of its content to MSN Money will add value for our users and will help advertisers reach an even broader audience in this highly attractive financial vertical", he continued for Microsoft's PressPass.
EDGAR Online is overall a premier source of information in the financial and corporate intelligence field and a leading provider of XML and XBRL tagged data and information.
Regardless of that, how would Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft and MTS Allstream joint venture for introducing enhanced broadband Internet and TV services sound? Thrilling? I'm sure it does and I'm sure it will be just that, as Thursday they signed the deal that has them aboard the same ship. Unfortunately for MTS Allstream, the deal is limited only to 2008, but the set of services should be able to be continued if the project proves to be a success.
The upsides of the deal are better definition offerings (HDTV), functionalities that include personal and digital video recorders, improved guide features and a few others.
"As the television becomes connected to the broadband network and powerful software is added, new connected TV experiences become possible, so people can connect with their favorite content, services, devices and people. [?] Together with Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft, MTS Allstream is very well positioned to offer a way for its customers to experience the next generation of television, featuring entirely new connected TV services", said Christine Heckart, general manager of marketing for Microsoft TV at Microsoft Corp.
Friday turned out to be a bleak day for Microsoft's MSN Video site, as the figures for November 2007 were released by comScore and they did not paint a pretty picture at all. Google thrashed the Redmond based company's video service in the worst way possible. It received about 1.9 percent market share, meaning 181 million videos out of the total of 9.5 billion. "In total, 138 million Americans - approximately three in four U.S Internet users - viewed online video in November. Google Sites also captured the largest online video audience with 76.2 million unique viewers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 46.3 million and Yahoo! Sites with 37.3 million. 74.5 million people viewed 2.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (39 videos per viewer)", comScore said in the press release accompanying the data.
