Just when I was eagerly anticipating the third of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld TV ads, word has it Microsoft has decided to can the undoubtedly well received series. I have no choice but to buy a MacBook now... Microsoft's version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is - ... Read full entry

Does the secret of Microsoft's domination of the web browser market lie in its use of Internet Explorer's user agent string? And so Microsoft made their own web browser, which they called Internet Explorer, hoping for it to be a "Netscape Killer". And Internet Explorer supported frames, and yet was not Mozilla, and so was not given frames. And Microsoft grew impatient, and did not wish to wait for ... Read full entry

I have to say my reaction to the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld series of Microsoft TV ads has also been along the lines of "I don't get it", but see now the real plot and intentions... The less than cogent ads are in fact part of an effort to re-frame the discussion about Microsoft. That actually works for me, because there's no way those ads would, for example, ... Read full entry

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer comes across like a car salesman in cross-company communications, while Apple's Steve Jobs presents a focussed, humble poise, even if he may not be a particularly humble person. There are some similarities between Ballmer and Jobs. For one, they both sign their memos, simply, "Steve". For another, they're both non-engineers leading engineering companies. Engineers, in general, crave facts and detest bullshit. My sense is that by ... Read full entry

I'm starting to wonder if the new Facebook, which looks all very dandy by the way, has been especially optimised for use with Internet Explorer. "Optimisation" harks back to the days of Web 1.0, when websites used to bear, on their splashscreens (remember those?) notices announcing that the site was better suited, or optimised, to a certain browser, usually IE, or the old Netscape browser. Then there were the ... Read full entry

This week's "say what" moment is courtesy of Microsoft marketing executive, Brad Brooks, speaking about an advertising campaign intended to restore consumer confidence in the Windows Vista operating system, who is quoted as saying "software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life." "We've got a pretty noisy competitor out there," Brooks said of Apple whose "I'm a Mac... and I'm a PC," commercials criticize Windows ... Read full entry

What would happen if Apple's market share were to increase dramatically? What if their dominance grew to the levels that Microsoft enjoyed in the past? Could Apple become the next Microsoft? While Apple has a relatively low market share and there's plenty of choice of platform, the control that Apple has over the third party application market really doesn't matter. If a really cool application appears that ... Read full entry

Yahoo stock plunges? US$7 billion has been added to the share value Yahoo! as a result of the failed Microsoft takeover bid. On Jan 31, the day before Microsoft offered $31/share for Yahoo, YHOO was at $19.18/share (market cap: $26.4 billion) and MSFT was at $32.60/share (market cap: $303.6 billion). At the close of trading today, YHOO closed at $24.37/share (market cap: $33.5 billion) and MSFT was at $29.08/share ... Read full entry

Tech feels first pinch of global downturn While not everyone's favourite Tech company, Microsoft shares are a good bet in times of looming recession and economic downturn. Although it certainly has a large enterprise business, Microsoft may still be a good bet in uncertain times, Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert said in a research note on Monday. "Seek safety in Microsoft's numbers," Egbert said, noting that, following its recent decline, Microsoft ... Read full entry

Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 Microsoft has decided to abandon the "controversial" version targeting feature in Internet Explorer 8. We've decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we've posted previously. Short and to the point. Needless to say standardistas are delighted, and not just because version targeting has been dropped . It seems like ... Read full entry