IE Losing Popularity In Europe

Posted on March 24, 2010 by sophieparker

Research from Quantcast has shown that, Internet Explorer’s European market is on the downward slide since the release of the browser choice ballot.

ie_in_europe_quantcast

The ballot was rolled out on march 1st, which according to Quantcast was also the last day Internet Explorer?handled most of the web traffic. The drop in share may be as much as 5% over a three week period. Quantcast?s numbers also show that?Firefox is benefiting the most from IE’s slide. Reuters also says that IE has lost market share. According to them, shares are down 1 percent in Britain, 1.3 in?Italy,?and 2.5 in France.?

firefox_in_europe_quantcast

Whereas Statcounter’s figures show that IE has been pretty steady. You can see that the share dips regularly, this happens at the weekend when users are at home.

ie_in_europe_statscounter

But the ballot is presenting users with options that they may have never otherwise have known about. The number of Opera downloads have doubled in Europe, and Firefox has also seen growth.?But Quantcast have said that “we’ll have to wait a little longer to see the full impact of the forced choice on Microsoft’s share.” Exciting times! Is IE domination coming to an end?

IE 9 Testers Being Recruited By Microsoft

Posted on March 23, 2010 by sophieparker

Testers are being invited to take part in a feedback program?fro Internet Explorer 9 by Microsoft.

Microsoft is inviting the top testers of the IE beta testing?program. The preview build that was recently released does not include UI elements, but allows for the testing of the new JavaScript engine and HTML5/CSS3 support. The preview build will be regularly updated by Microsoft.?Testers have received an email from the program manager, Justin Saint Clair himself, inviting them to a “select group of IE9 Tech Feedback participants.” Sounds prestigious!

You can find out a bit more about what’s new in IE9 in a?recent article I wrote in this blog. Along with the JavaScript and HTML5 support, Microsoft are planning to enhance?IE’s tabbed browsing. The Quick Tabs feature will have better functionality and tab management options.

XP Mode Has Relaxed Hardware Requirements

Posted on March 23, 2010 by sophieparker

A software update that strips away some hardware requirements for running XP mode on Windows 7, has been pushed out by Microsoft. This is a bid to convince more businesses to upgrade. Microsoft has said the XP mode no longer needs hardware virtualization to run, but will still use it if available. Therefore eliminating any compatibility issues they might have when moving over to Windows 7.

When it was first launched, XP mode required an extra gig of RAM, 15GB of free disk space and hardware virtualisation in the BIOS. But with the last part being dropped it should make life a little easier for companies wanting to catch up. XP mode will run from Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate. Microsoft recommends MED-V for larger organisations.

Microsoft Think End User With Windows Phone 7

Posted on March 22, 2010 by sophieparker

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft?s latest and greatest effort at making a user-centric device, that is a pleasure to use. It’s creation?is?certainly due to?the squeeze Apple have put on Microsoft’s market.

Bill Buxton joined Microsoft as a principle researcher three years ago. His goal in joining was to make Microsoft a company that understands the importance of user experience. Not an easy task. Microsoft seems to get this message, intellectually. But historically it seems to have been against this. The MIX conference held last week is supposed to be focused on design. But there focus seemed to be just as much on developer content, causing a few to complain.

But Microsoft?s core products still retain its legacy. Office is no danger of becoming any more user-centric that Windows Mobile was. It would need a complete overhaul. It’s OEM dependency also works against design efforts. The Windows 7 out of box experience is meant to be quieter, quicker and simpler. But you still get third party dialogue boxes rearing their heads, trying to grab your attention.

Chief Exec, Steve Ballmer said during the Phone 7 launch:

“We want to lead and take complete accountability for the end user experience … have more consistency in the hardware platform, more consistency in the user experience, but still enable [partner] innovation.”

Microsoft have politely locked down the software and hardware. Aiming to limit the damage done to the design effort by third parties. Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come. Buxton has made a similar comment:

“For me it’s not even about the phone, but what’s interesting is that it’s the first product in the company with critical mass that’s embraced this … it will have an impact on other parts of the company.”

The priority Microsoft has placed on design may go some of the way to explaining why the features of Phone 7 have been limited for the initial release. And they’ve had?a fair amount of?criticism for this. myself included. If the user control and resource usage can be protected the features will probably be gradually opened, hopefully.

But Microsoft have allot of catching up to do, and their rivals won?t stand still.

Microsoft Releases Windows Phone 7 TV Ad

Posted on March 19, 2010 by sophieparker

The Windows Phone 7 jug naught is on the road, so prepared for a serious media campaign frenzy to ensue! Microsoft first showed off the commercial at MIX 10 this year.

While the commercial successfully shows the capabilities of the OS, it’s not exactly original. Beautiful Woman meets up with beautiful man, with his beautiful son, who doesn’t hate the beautiful woman. And they’re all united by Windows phone 7 while beautiful tinkly music plays in the back ground…Oh, and it’s a sunny day! Honestly, it makes me want to puke a bit.

Having said all that, Windows Phone 7 does look like it will rock.?You can find the commercial on YouTube if you fancy a look.

Microsoft Launch New Hardware Blogg

Posted on March 18, 2010 by sophieparker

Microsoft have launched a new hardware blog. Which can be found at:

?http://microsofthardwareblog.com

There’s not too much on it at the moment as it only kicked off on the 16Th, ?but a fair few comments have been left. the site is going to be a forum for discussion and feedback. The general manager Brett Ostrum wrote:

“If you?re looking for a new product, or want to make the most out of the one you already have, then this is a great place for you.? We?re going to use this space to tell you about new mice, keyboards, webcams, headsets and gaming devices, keep you up-to-date on new software or product features, and give you insight into how we design our products for you that maybe you weren?t aware of”

So if you’re into your gadgets and the like this will be a good spot to keep an eye on.

Microsoft’s IE9 To Support HTML5

Posted on March 17, 2010 by sophieparker

Internet Explorer 9 will be geared towards performance and HTML5 standards support. IE is the most prolific browser used, but is feeling the squeeze from competitors such as Google Chrome and Firefox. You can preview IE9 at: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/ThankYou/Default.html

It’s standards include CSS3 features such as rounded corners, selector APIs and opacity. SVG is supported, which is a bit of a surprise in light of MS’s promotion of its?Silverlight plug-in fro rich graphics. Whether there will be?support for the canvas element is still unclear.

Microsoft has promised support fro audio and vidio tags, but it’s not available in the preview download. They demonstrated a H.264 720p? video running directly from the browser at the MIX conference in Vegas this week.

There will be a new Javascript engine nick-named Chakra, that will run in the background. And is capable of running in a separate CPU core if there is more than one. Argued to be at least 6 times better than IE8. The SunSpider benchmark show IE9 scoring better than Firefox, but running a little behind some of the other big browsers such as Chrome, Opera and Safari.

IE9 is fully compliant with hardware acceleration, which will speed up HTML and graphics rendering. Microsoft has dubbed this “GPU-powered HTML5″. This will improve scrolling and viewing 3D graphics by allowing the graphics card to do the processing. The preview used requires Direct2D for this, so it can only be run on Vista SP2, Windows 7 or Windows 2008.

However the preview only scored 55 out of 100 in the Acid3 mark up test. Microsoft has promised continual improvement, but other browsers already pass this test.

What’s In The Release Of Windows Phone 7

Posted on March 16, 2010 by sophieparker

There has been allot of excitement and good vibrations around Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 platform. But it looks like all the good stuff will be left out of the initial release. There will not be, “in this release”:

A local SQL database

Applications will not be able to communicate with each other or run as a background service.

No automatic updates for Applications either.

Subscription billing will not be possible.

Unless you are a developer with an unlocked device, the only way an application can be deployed is through Windows Marketplace. All apps have to be approved by Microsoft and they will get a 30% cut of the revenue. But they will allow free apps.

In this release, there will be no provision for corporate development. Which seems like a bit of a let down. The platform would be perfect for business intelligence applications and some hardware-accelerated graphics. Microsoft have admitted that they only began intense work on the platform about a year ago. So this may well explain why so many features aren’t ready yet. But what were they up to before then. No solutions were found for the known problems of the previous platform. Sales for windows mobile devices are said to have plummeted 20% since October?2009.

Windows?Phone 7 is a very delayed response to the flop of Windows mobile. The user interface will deliver a much better user experience, and won’t be running the Windows Mobile apps. Phew! Microsoft have implied that ther will be a professional release in the future. But in the meantime if you’re determined to stick with Windows Mobile 6.5 and Visual Studio.

Microsoft have also said: “Windows Phone 7 Series delivers an all managed code platform,” meaning no native API. but that’s not entirely true. Underneath Windows 7 is Windows CE. But third parties wont generally be able to get their hands on it.

So, it looks like Windows Phone 7 will be a bit of? an anticlimax at first. lets just hope it doesn’t consumers off for good.

Microsoft Loses i4i Patent Appeal Again

Posted on March 15, 2010 by sophieparker

Microsoft has lost it’s appeal for the second time, according to the BBC. A 240 million dollar fine was imposed by a US court?on Microsoft in May 2009.? i4i sued Microsoft back in 2007, for violating it’s 1998 patent for a document system that eliminates the need for manually embedded formatting codes. The infrigmetn?lies within Word’s XML technology. Which they were also made to remove. Microsoft have removed the XML technology but are continuing to fight the ruling. The original injunction brought against Microsoft prohibited Microsoft from ” selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.”

The first appeal by Microsoft was in December 2009, but they were found to be guilty. The second appeal also went the same way. But it was said by three appeal court judges that there was evidence that Microsoft was aware of the patent before the technology was used in Office.

Microsoft is now apealing for the?third?time. Wanting a more thorough investigation. If the apeal is rejected Microsoft can take it’s case to the Supreme Court. Which no doubt, it will.

Microsoft And Motorola Go Bing

Posted on March 12, 2010 by sophieparker

Microsofts search engine Bing is to go on Motorola Android phones in China. This comes after an alliance was announced with Redmond that will put Bing on Androids accross the globe. Even after Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer having said: “Android without [Google] isn’t Android.” In retaliation Google has halted the use of its apps on Chinese Android phones. Forcing Motorola to use alternatives.

Motarola has confirmed that the Bing bookmark and search widget (based on google’s open source OS) will appear on new and existing phones before the end of the quarter. However, it seems that bing will not be the default provider on devices. The Bing map service will also appear on phones.

The confusion relating to Google’s postition in China is still ongoing. So too is?the relationship between Mountain View and Motorola.?After an alleged?hack on?Google’s internal system by Chinese??sources, Google threatened to stop it’s China opperation. It also?planned to?postpone the launch of 2 Android phones on China Unicom. Google also took th stance to not censor results on it’s Chinese search engine, but this censorship still seems to be in place as its position with the government is negotiated. And this negotiation has been going on for quite some time, over?eight weeks.?

Android is open source, but the CU phones would have been loaded with Google. And would have also offered intergration with Google apps, the availability of these apps has been postponed. Therefore meaning that Motorola will not be able to offer it’s apps on the Chinese Android handsets even if it did go with Google.

Microsoft has also made a deal with Verizon Wireless in the US, to make Bing the default search engine on particular Blackberries. And this default cannot be changed. So it looks like Redmond is really pushing the reach of mobile bing.