We keep hearing that the recession is over, and yet, for many companies and individuals, it sure doesn't feel as though it's over. Rising markets and positive comments from leaders aside, there are still a lot of firms struggling with declining revenues and a lot of folks looking for jobs.
There is some evidence, though, that things are looking up in the channel. If the big distributors are bellwethers for channel players of all sizes, then the financial picture for partners really is improving -- or should be soon.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/20090 comments
We've gone on and on in this space about how Microsoft should focus on core technologies and let some of the fringe stuff that's making the company bloated and inefficient go. Well, Microsoft said this week that both Windows Live and Windows Mobile are unprofitable.
Yes, that's right. Unprofitable, as in not taking away from the bottom line. Now, Windows Live, as confusing as it is as a brand, seems pretty essential to Microsoft in the coming cloud computing fight against Google and others. But really, what is the point of Windows Mobile? Does Microsoft absolutely have to be in this space? Microsoft can still sell apps for mobile devices even if they don't run on Windows Mobile, right? Live might be do or die, but Mobile? We're not so sure.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/20091 comments
Intel has had its eyes on the software market for a while, and it took another step toward becoming a real software vendor this week with the introduction of a new version of its Moblin operating system.
Linux-based Moblin could end up all over the place, from smartphones to netbooks. So, that's more competition (potentially) for Windows -- this time from the company that helped build the Microsoft empire (while also building its own).
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/20090 comments
Two things today: Usually, as the days lose daylight and the summer slips into fall, the news cycle starts turning again in a serious way. We haven't noticed that to be the case so much this year, perhaps because much of the technology world is anticipating the release of Windows 7 (even though there's probably nothing about it we don't know). The bigger vendors have been relatively quiet so far this fall.
That was the first thing. Here's the second: Here at RCPU, we're technology generalists, meaning that we fit the old expression, to some extent, about being jacks of all trades and masters of none. It's worth mentioning, however, that we've mastered some areas of technology over the years more than we've mastered others. Your editor has a penchant for ERP, cloud computing, security and a few other categories. But there are times when we'll admit to our lack of expertise, and this is one of them.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/20090 comments
We don't want to give anything away or anything, but let's just say that the November issue of Redmond might just reveal the massive popularity of the Microsoft System Center product line, which the company updated late last week.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/20090 comments
Is this the end? Really? Are the bad times over? PC sales were down again in calendar Q2 2009, but there's -- gasp! -- optimism on the horizon. Well, at RCPU, we'll believe it when we see it (we're still pretty pessimistic about the economy as a whole), but we're cheering for that recovery.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/20090 comments
And it's goodbye to ISC's flagship product, Star-P, but hello to a bunch of ISC technology finding its way into Redmond's wares. And, in case you were wondering, ISC is (or was) based in Waltham, Mass., your editor's current residence and an all-around fine city.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/20091 comments
Oh, this ERP business is complicated, and with Microsoft, it's really, really complicated. Sure, Microsoft Dynamics might be cheaper and easier to use and implement than most -- probably all -- of its competitors, but Redmond's insistence on offering four different ERP suites under the Dynamics name leads to a marketing alphabet soup that even the biggest enterprise software fan might have trouble keeping straight.
For the purpose of this post, though, forget about NAV, SL and GP. We're going to talk here about AX, the suite with by far the most violent name in the bunch and, if we're honest, the mothership of Dynamics that Microsoft hopes will lead the product line up market and into serious competition with SAP, Oracle and the other ERP titans.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/20092 comments
It's just a little exchange of bills among Texans. No big deal, really. With the PC market slumping, Dell has decided to get into the services business, quickly, by forking over nearly $4 billion to buy Perot Systems. So, HP and IBM (and some really large Microsoft partners), there's a new services competitor on the horizon, and it's ridin' straight out of Texas.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/20090 comments
You might want to get this quick fix installed before somebody actually does attack Vista or Windows Server 2008. Then again, how much harm could anybody really do to Vista that Microsoft hasn't done already? Oh, we're just kidding...mostly. (The Vista jokes will cease when Windows 7 makes its grand debut. Maybe.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/20090 comments
Mary Jo Foley, Redmond magazine columnist and Microsoft follower par excellence, says it could be...along with some sort of Microsoft-branded phone.
So, are we really going to go through this whole tablet thing again? Apple's headed down that road, as well. I guess Microsoft and Apple are just determined to make us like tablet computing. Here at RCPU, we don't really see the appeal. But the whole tablet notion goes well with the touch-computing elements of Windows 7 (also not appealing to us), we suppose. For now, we'll stick with the netbook. It'll take some convincing to get us to do otherwise.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/20091 comments
Those who would sound the death knell for Microsoft got another shot of false hope this week when the U.S. federal government revealed that it would embark on an ambitious cloud computing effort.
Already, the feds have an app store up and running at Apps.gov, and national CIO Vivek Kundra is talking about moving government IT out of the '80s (if we're generous) and into the cloud. Reports the San Francisco Chronicle (from the link in the first paragraph of this entry):
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Posted by Lee Pender on 09/17/20092 comments