14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Microsoft announced a new piece of software, named ?Small Business +?, that offers owners on-line training and other resources, designed especially for small businesses. The training includes some tutorials about business problems, related directly to Microsoft products, initially Microsoft Office. Also, the company is offering for free, and for fee, on-line technical support aimed on small business. The new product is designed especially for completing the on-line tools of the future software Office Live, which will include small business help. Doug Leland, general manager of the small business unit with Microsoft's partner division, said: ?The primary business of small business owners is business not technology?. Paid services are offered in 3 levels: the first $199 level, which includes 6 on-line support chat, the second $299 level, with unlimited support chat for a year, and last $499 level which allows customers to require support on-line and by phone. Also, Microsoft is offering technical support for main issues in business, in a 45 days trial.
Also, on a Monday interview about Windows Vista made by BusinessWeek's reporter Jay Greene to Windows vice president, was published. The main words he used for the next Microsoft product were ?reliability? and ?security?. Being asked why Windows Vista must be bought, the official revealed that is a lot of work in more areas, but the main features are Internet security and the fact that the system will be a good media manager. Accepting the idea that since the last Windows product release have been about 5 years although they offered many updates and patches, the vice president said that he is expecting Vista to have a great impact, calling it a computer phenomenon. The entire interview can be found here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060123_250819.htm
The same day was given to publicity a Bulgarian case, with 8 arrested persons, accused by phising attacks, using Microsoft information. It seems the 8 members made 46 attacks using 43 servers located in 11 countries around the world, represented by fake e-mails sent to Microsoft's customers requiring updated information about credit cards. Those attackers made a profit of $50.000. Microsoft is working very hard on blocking this kind of attacks, so, they included in the new Internet Explorer an antiphising filter.
On Tuesday, Microsoft released 2 products meant to lure designers. Expression Interactive Designer and Expression Graphic Designer are offered as a trial version, but still in testing, a fact confirmed by company officials. The second one, code-named Acrylic, is meant to be used for logos in Windows' applications and websites. A pre-release product was first presented in June. Expression suite includes a web design tool, and represents a market strategy to attract designers, typically served by other companies like Adobe Systems or Corel.
On January 24th, the first screenshots of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview appeared on a website, being a product that was expected to be released in the first quarter of 2006. Although Microsoft warned their customers to wait for the final product, it seems a new build is available for download under a 11 MB .rar archive. In those screenshots, the new features of the browser are obviously meant to take the security to a higher level and are created to make browsing easier. Beside the well known tab and antiphising filter a new option to Delete Browsing History is included.
On Wednesday, the giant came with a big surprise on the staff market, as they hired an ex Yahoo researcher, Gary Flake. Microsoft created a new researching and developing team, named ?Live Labs?, formed by MSN and Microsoft Research members. In November last year, the software giant announced the ?Live? services, a method to add online tools to their products. Also, two new big applications are expected, Windows Live and Office Live. Internally, Flake's work will be assisted by other well known Microsoft's employers: Ray Ozzie, Craig Mundie and David Vaskevitch.
On January 25th, Microsoft tried a new strategy to deal with the antitrust case. The giant announced it would agree to add the source code of the Windows communication protocols on the list from the sharing agreement. Microsoft was accused by the European Commission and U.S. Government for continuing to refuse to provide access to Windows' communication protocols, which will result in compatibility between Windows and other rivals.
On Thursday, the company announced the decision to invest in a global publicity campaign around 130 millions dollars. The campaign will include TV commercials, printing and Internet. The voice used in this spots belongs to Fargo's star, William H. Macy, and will use the motto: ?Your potential, our passion?. Mike Lucero, Microsoft Group Advertising Manager explained this decision by the fact that usually, the software giant is seen as a ?huge american company?, image which is different from their cultural, educational and security options.
Microsoft revealed another brave initiative on Thursday, that of designing their own portable audio player, a rival product to the one from Apple, which is currently dominating the market. Although the giant's officials labeled it as a press speculation, they didn't say ?no? to this possibility and it looks like there is already a special department for developing this first step. In September, Microsoft did some reorganization and created 3 new departments, including Entertainment and Device Division, which will develop products for mobile devices.
On Friday, Bill Gates said that for fighting against piracy in India and China, and for fulfilling US and European standards, he will need 10 years. Microsoft's boss accepted the fact that developing is advancing a little slow, meaning a sales growth from year to year, but the two countries are still a good business opportunity. Although the sales since last year went up about 30 percent and the investments are to a higher level, Gates said he was expecting much more from India and China, especially because India is producing 75.000 engineers a year, while US produces 25.000.
