What Microsoft Won't Say About Surface
Sales figures for its new tablet were perhaps the most conspicuously absent part of the software giant's on-target earnings report after the markets closed on Thursday. Here's why.
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When Microsoft released Windows 8 last fall, a lot of people thought it could be the PC's savior, a hip-looking new thing that made those clunky IBM-compatibles cool again. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Sales figures for its new tablet were perhaps the most conspicuously absent part of the software giant's on-target earnings report after the markets closed on Thursday. Here's why.
New numbers indicate that 1.5 million have now downloaded Pokki, just one of the many Start Menu replacements out there. And that may be a lot bigger chunk than Microsoft will let on.
The tech turf wars are raging on, and there is one notable giant largely missing from battle, report The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. So Microsoft lost 2012. But what about next year?
Most of the earlier reviewers didn't wholeheartedly love the tablet, but TechCrunch's MG Siegler just goes full-on Grinch on the thing.
The new Microsoft operating system that all the reviewers called confusing isn't exactly winning over consumers either.
The timing of Windows 8 mastermind Steve Sinofsky's departure is starting to make more sense: Microsoft got the product it wanted out of him (Windows 8) and therefore doesn't need him anymore.
Steve Sinofsky, the guy behind Windows 8 and once touted as a possible successor to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left the company yesterday because of his prickliness, even though he got things done, a source tells The New York Times's Nick Wingfield.
That was quick. Less than a month after Windows 8 hit shelves slightly obscured by the flurry of mixed reviews, the software's chief architect Steven Sinofsky is leaving the company.
So Microsoft had a big fancy event in which they described everything we already knew about Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, without any Foo Fighters or any sky diving stunts, and the tech bloggers are disappointed.
As expected, Microsoft has taken this event to give us reasons to love its new operating system.
With less than a week to go before the big Windows 8 launch on October 26, everybody seems to be converging on the same unambiguous conclusion about the new software: bafflement.
The last Windows Nokia Lumia phone was supposed to save both Nokia and Microsoft's cell phone businesses. This is supposed to be a better version of that. The phone isn't available to the general public, but some techies got their hands on some -- mostly for very brief moments.
Playing around with the manufacturers version of the not-yet-widely released Windows 8, programmer (and hacker) Nadim Kobeissi discovered that the operating system "tells Microsoft about everything you install" and does that "not very securely."
With its recent product and software announcements and PR moves, all signs point to comeback for Microsoft, but it just hasn't quite gotten there yet.
Time to figure out all the possible things that could happen at Monday's mysterious Microsoft event.
With Microsoft putting $300,000,000 into Barnes and Noble's Nook business, the Windows 8 maker just bought itself something that could come in handy with that whole iPad killer strategy it's got going on.
Last night Microsoft announced three cuts of its much anticipated new operating system: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT.
After a successful developer preview debut last fall, Microsoft has unveiled the consumer preview of its newest operating system.
Hoping to get some of that early Windows magic back, Microsoft has chosen a logo very similar to the one for its very first Windows operating system for its newest operating system.
As first reviews pour in for the new Microsoft system, debate begins about its ultimate effects
Excitement for Windows 8 was enough to bring out the Apple fanboys to rain on the parade
Like Apple, Microsoft has forgone the platform, but only kind-of, sort-of
What some are calling the most important update isn't really that great
Microsoft's latest product has lots of nice features that make it worth it to switch
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