Posted: May 26, 2008

[The articles below were posted between Apr. 28, 2008 and May 26, 2008 and appear in the June 2008 hardcopy edition of Update.]

Systems Management and Security

Free! Systems Management Product Roadmap

Updates to System Center management products will support Windows Server 2008, cross-platform management, and virtualization

Assessment, Planning Accelerator Released

An Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator can help organizations prepare for deployment of Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, or Office 2007

Sales, Marketing, and Services

Tracking and Analyzing Customer and Partner Satisfaction

Customer and Partner Experience, both an operational unit and a general focus at Microsoft, tracks, measures, and tries to improve customer satisfaction with the company

Free! Pooling, Multiplexing Changes Complicate Upgrades

Licensing rules for multiplexing and pooling, technologies that can reduce the number of users directly accessing Microsoft servers, are complex and in some cases undocumented

New Partner Competencies Rolled Out

New competencies in business intelligence, hosting solutions, and unified communications have been created, mostly by promoting specializations that were previously part of other competencies. Consequently, partners could lose some competencies

Windows & Mobile

Application Virtualization May Reduce Desktop Support

Application virtualization may reduce desktop management costs, but only if costs of packaging and the infrastructure are kept under control

SP3 Sets New Windows XP Baseline

The third service pack for Windows XP will likely be the last before the product leaves Mainstream support

Business Applications & Services

CRM Online Service Debuts

CRM Online, Microsoft's hosted customer relationship management service, went live in Apr. 2008 but does not include all the features of Dynamics CRM 4.0, on which it is based

New Formats in Office Service Pack

Office 2007 SP2, planned for the first half of 2009, will support Adobe Portable Document Format output and import/export of Open Document Format files

FAST Added to Enterprise Search Roadmap

FAST ESP will be sold alongside Microsoft's SharePoint-based enterprise search products, and Microsoft pledges to continue developing the product for non-Windows OSs

Reporting Add-on for PerformancePoint

A free add-on called Management Reporter offers customers an alternative to the financial reporting features built into PerformancePoint Server 2007, but the tool's long-term prospects are questionable

Amalga Healthcare Software Released

A healthcare acquisition, Azyxxi, is rolled out under the Microsoft Amalga brand

Application Platform

Visual Studio, .NET Framework Update Coming

Visual Studio and the .NET Framework will get significant updates in a service pack planned for late summer 2008

Live Mesh Announced

Now in preview, Live Mesh is a file synchronization service that Microsoft promises will evolve into a platform for synchronizing data and applications across multiple devices

BizTalk Server Update for 2008 Products

A BizTalk Server update planned for 2009 will deliver compatibility with Microsoft's latest OS, developer tools, and database software, while preserving backward compatibility with the current version of the product

Consumer and Small Business

Yahoo Bid Pulled

Yahoo apparently wanted US$5 billion more than Microsoft was willing to pay, and a Yahoo-Google deal makes a hostile takeover unattractive

Searchers to Get Cash Back

A new promotional program for Live Search will reduce advertisers' risk while giving searchers cash back on purchases they make

Farecast Airfare Predictor Acquired

The Apr. 2008 acquisition of Farecast, producer of patented airfare forecasting software, brings data mining software and experts to Microsoft

VBA Returning to Office for Mac

The next version of Office for Mac will restore Visual Basic for Applications, enabling cross-platform macros

Zune Adds TV Downloads

A spring 2008 Zune update adds downloadable TV shows and other improvements

Office, OneCare Subscription Suite

The forthcoming 'Albany' will include the latest versions of Office, OneCare, and various Windows Live and Office Live offerings, and will be sold to consumers on a subscription basis

Time's Up for Smart Watches

Smart Watches, which received data via a one-way wireless service, will be discontinued, but the underlying MSN Direct service lives on for now

Corporate and Legal

Slowing PC Sales Hurt Q3'08

Slowing PC sales were a drag on Microsoft's revenues in Q3'08, although the Xbox business outpaced expectations

EU Fine Appeal, Patent Cases

In addition to appealing the EU's US$1.4 billion antitrust fine, Microsoft faces a patent-infringement suit over RoundTable and has challenged patents held by videoconferencing software company Avistar