Mango shows Microsoft still has the taste for smartphone success

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AppId is over the quota

Steve Jobs famously criticised Microsoft for having no taste and no culture. Windows Phone 7.5, the latest version of Microsoft's operating system for mobile phones, is a revolutionary product for its parent company because it has both in spades. The worry is that Microsoft has delivered this lovely creation a little too late.

As a piece of visual design, the operating system also known as Mango makes the iPhone's bubble-inspired home screen graphics look tired and out of date. The style is pared back, letting the content, drawn in from the myriad of online sources that now figure in our daily lives, do the talking. Applications each inhabit a simple red square, or "live tile" on a black screen. When customised they earn their name and truly come to life, which is where the culture comes in.

The level to which a select group of the best social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – have been woven into the functions on Mango goes well beyond what was available on its predecessor (Windows Phone 7), and arguably well beyond what Apple's iPhone and Google's Android can offer.

Punch in your Facebook and Twitter coordinates, and the software merges them with your address book to create a profile for each contact, with their latest photos, status updates and tweets. Pin that person's tile to your home screen, and each update feeds into the little square.

The most recent photos taken on your phone are also displayed in their own double sized tile. And the home screen can, unlike many other operating systems, display multiple tiles from a single application – one for each item you are bidding for on Ebay, or the weather in a handful of cities.

The messaging has caught up with iPhone. A conversation that might begin on Facebook chat but then moves to text messaging or Windows Live Messenger – the Microsoft instant messaging service – now appears on screen in a single thread.

Where the operating system does fail to impress is with voice recognition. Mango incorporates it, for example to compose an email. But "Want you meet camera" is not a very usable approximation of "Want to meet tomorrow".

Voice commands are not just a diverting new trick. They are the future for smartphones. Using virtual keypads on a tiny touch screen is life sapping, and impossible to do while walking. But the trusty buttons of a qwerty keyboard are just not sexy enough to be added to the iPhone. So Apple is doing its level best to get us using Siri, its own voice service, which has surprised users with its accuracy. Microsoft has some catching up to do here.

And it will make every effort to catch up. The software behemoth is not just fighting for a nice sideline, it is fighting for control of the mass market computer. As mobile connected devices become cleverer and are touched by millions more fingers than have ever typed on a PC keyboard, the importance of the laptop or desktop computer will fade and with it Microsoft's influence.

There is a long battle ahead. Research firm IDC says Windows operating systems were on just 2% of phones sold worldwide in the first half of this year, down from 13% in 2008. Back then, Android's share was 0%. In three years it has become the best seller, with 42%. BlackBerry is still significant, and Apple's iOS is at 19%.

The first Nokia handsets to use Windows will be unveiled in London next week. Nokia still sells more "feature" phones than anyone else, but it sold just 15% of smartphones in the summer, down from 33% in 2010. Its decision to abandon Symbian left it unable to compete for most of this year. The alliance with Microsoft is clearly make or break, and their target as they attempt to rise up the ranks will be Android.

Research In Motion, maker of BlackBerry, will continue to chase its corporate market. Apple will remain the premium brand for now. Which will leave Microsoft and Google slugging it out for dominance of the cheaper, mass market handsets.

Where Google may have the edge is control over handset design. It is buying Motorola, possibly just for the patents needed to protect Android against litigation, or possibly to create better phones. Nokia and Microsoft are merely in an alliance, but they have size, marketing firepower, relationships with networks and experience on their side. Nokia won its battle for dominance of the mass market against Motorola at the end of the 1990s, and still sells more basic feature phones than anyone else. Microsoft knows a lot more about selling operating systems than Google, albeit on PCs. Its creator may be a fading force, but Mango shows Microsoft still has the taste for success.

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How Apple eclipsed Microsoft

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Steve Jobs would have been proud. Apple sold over 17.1m iPhones over the last quarter and posted record profits. Photograph: Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

Apple is now bigger than Microsoft, its old rival. Not just in market capitalisation but also in quarterly revenue and profits. Its enormous, ruthlessly efficient and capitalises on its strengths - its brand and marketing, and uses them to promote top class hardware and software packaged as brilliantly designed and easy to use products.

And now it is looking to China: "I've never seen a country with so many people rising into the middle class who aspire to own products that we make," Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said. He has his eyes on the fresh possibilities of the hundreds of millions of people there in a way that no other western company has: he doesn't just want to sell them phones, he wants to sell them iPads and Macs too. If China clicks– and the fact that some Chinese cities had fake Apple stores which were so good they were indistinguishable from the real thing – then Apple has space for years of growth.

Apple began its comeback with the iPod, released on 23 October 2001. It wasn't the first digital music player but was easily the best in class (due to a clever choice of the hard drive – a first from Toshiba, for which Apple secured an exclusive contract) and the fact that it had previously developed a superfast connection system for video, called FireWire, which it adapted to transfer songs.

The iPod's ease of use easily won over consumers. Apple revolutionised the music player and digital music download market. Then came the iPhone, where Apple wasn't first with a touchscreen, yet did it far better than previous efforts by companies such as Nokia and LG, which sniffed at Steve Jobs's presentation but have since sunk into loss.

Apple hasn't been able to dominate the smartphone market, but it's noticeable that Google's Android mimics the iPhone system (but didn't before its launch: it used a keyboard-based system that looked more like a BlackBerry). Given that Android dominates the smartphone market, running on over 40% of handsets now being sold, compared to Apple's 18% or so, one could say that the "Apple interface" dominates.

Then of course there is the iPad. Apple spent nearly ten years, on and off, developing it; Steve Jobs thought that Bill Gates's announcement in 2001 of a Windows tablet was intriguing, but the design team led by Jonathan Ive couldn't make something with a touch screen that was a real pleasure to use. So it was shelved but the experience of touchscreens was then put to use to develop the iPhone. The iPad was the next step, and while Apple is again - just as with the iPod - not the first in the market, it has completely dominated it. It holds the Guinness world record for being the fastest-selling gadget ever. The iPad's market share is 75% and will retain its lead till 2014.

"I still believe that the tablet market will be bigger than the PC market," Cook said after the results.

Apple has a tiny share of the PC market – it just edged past 5% this quarter compared to the 95% of Windows. Is Apple ever going to reverse that? No, never. Its share is growing minutely and has done so for over five years. Apple's increase, though small, has affected PC sales.

Apple's strength is the diversity of its range of products: phones, computers, tablets and it sells music, TV shows and films. It also sells huge numbers of mobile apps and simple hardware like mice and trackpads and keyboards. The company has colossal amounts of cash - about $70bn (£44.5bn), of which about half is outside the US (and would be subject to heavy taxes if it were repatriated). So it uses that cash to buy favourable terms and equip factories for its suppliers; in return it gets special treatment. It's the same method it used with the iPod, but now done with hundreds of millions of dollars unlike what it could offer a decade ago.

The iPod sales are falling year-on-year. Apple is mainly focussing now on its iPod Touch, in effect an iPhone without the phone. About 100 million have been sold. Many of these will be able to use the new iMessage service, which can send messages to other iPhone or iPad users over the internet. It's like an entry-level version of the iPhone (and a challenge to RIM's BlackBerry Messenger.

The only thing Apple doesn't do is manufacture hardware. But Cook, who was hired by Jobs in 1997 has gradually changed that. Apple gives hardware contract to companies in China and Taiwan. Its most serious rival in hardware is Samsung, the South Korean conglomerate with whom it is fighting a series of court battles over patents on mobiles, smartphones and tablets. Samsung also has a new flagship Android phone, just released, but without the immediate UK availability of the iPhone 4S. And yet ironically, Apple is also Samsung's biggest customer. They need each other.

The other key rival is Amazon, which sells more content than Apple, but also does hardware through its Kindle, and especially the low-cost Fire tablet. Where Apple profits on the hardware, Amazon profits on the content, siting them at opposite ends of the same market.

And then there is iCloud. Both Google and Microsoft have been pushing to take cloud computing to the next level. But Apple's iCloud service already has 20 million users, making it one of the biggest players in the sector. However, unlike Microsoft and Google, its aim is to use it to sell hardware, rather than software or services.

But for a really clear example of Apple's efficiency, consider a figure that's normally ignored: its inventory (the hardware that's sitting around in warehouses).

At the end of the quarter, Apple, despite its colossal turnover, had just under three days' worth of stock under its ownership. Far less than Nokia(35 days) or BlackBerry-maker RIM (45 days).

Short inventories are generally a good sign in a hardware company: they indicate good supply chain management and product planning. Steve Jobs hired Tim Cook to tighten up Apple's then-sloppy inventory management. He has got it down from weeks to days. Ideally, he wants it to be hours. But Apple's growth has defeated that ambition. It's not a bad one to miss, though.

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Microsoft seeks to weaken the software patents rules by United States Supreme Court's

Software patents Microsoft cases where the accused was in order to cool down the infringing a patent on XML and forced to suspend the sale of the Word and Office when it US Supreme Court Monday afternoon UK time and could have a far-reaching impact on future litigation.

Microsoft has brought the matter to the Supreme Court, where it asks the Court to lower the standards of proof required for challenges to the validity of a duly issued patent. The company is seeking to overturn a patent have at the moment to be able to show "clear and convincing" evidence; Microsoft wants to move, for the benefit of tilts the complainant that an "overweight" of evidence.

If Microsoft WINS, it could weaken the use of software patents in a number of cases. Loudon Owen, Chairman of i4i, saying it is "patent law at a crossroads" and that "the consequences will affect every consumer in each establishment at each level".

Microsoft contends that it is too difficult to pass on the software patent granted in error by the US Patent Office. "Innovation is one of the major drivers, one of the bright spots in our economy," says Andy Culbert, Associate General Counsel for Microsoft. "If you have a really bad patent should not have been issued, what happens? It keeps innovation. "

i4i says that weaken the standard evidence to overturn the patents would deter companies and inventors from being innovative. Currently ends about half of patents with the patent litigation will be ruled invalid. If Microsoft (which itself owns a large number of patents, including software patents) prevails, that proportion will rise.

By i4i, Owen argues: "what it really means for consumers is there will be much less investment in medicines in biotechnology, in green tech … because without patents, there is no security, and system will not work."

Speech to the Seattle PI blog, Henry Sneath, Pittsburgh-based patents lawyer wondered why and when Microsoft had been so keen to "overweight" rather than "clear and convincing" standard of proof:

"I have never heard of any large cry to change the default, and I do not remember anything written about it," said Sneath, who spoke as an officer of DRI, the nation's largest organization of civil litigation lawyers. "So you have to wonder why it is suddenly a big deal. Now, Microsoft has made a stink about it? It is almost like the manufactured problem. "

Dispute between Microsoft i4i and is lengthy. i4i is a Canadian software company which told the guardian in 2010, the aim is to become "[database company] Oracle unstructured data", and rejected claims it was involved in "patent trolling vessels"-enforce patents that it happens to keep but the user does not otherwise-in suing Microsoft.

In March 2007 the defendant i4i Microsoft for intentional infringement of its patent on the use of XML (Extensible Markup Language superset of markup languages such as the Web's HTML) in Word to custom applications. This led to a ban on the sale in the us of the Word 2003 version of Microsoft program considered to be directly violates. (Later versions did not.)

The central element in i4i XML product is that it takes large amounts of unstructured data, and then wraps in XML to make it more usable and useful. Among its users the US Patent Office, US Air Force and the number of pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer and Novo Nordisk.

i4i accused Microsoft of "cool" violates the patent after the two companies had had conversations in 2000-2001 about XML and custom XML. "" We had extensive contacts with Microsoft in the course of several years on the ability to interact, "Owen told me in January 2010. Soon after Microsoft began talking about XML schemas in future versions of Word, which was then delivered in Word 2003-processing activity i4i's activity, the company said.

On 20 May 2009, a jury found i4i's patent has been violated and will Microsoft was ordered to pay damages to i4i. 11 August 2009, it was a final judgment against Microsoft issued, included a grant of more than $ 290 m damages for i4i (including enhanced damages, interest and record-verdict damage) and a permanent injunction, which entered into force on 11 January, 2010.

Microsoft unsuccessfully appealed to the Federal Circuit Court of appeals at the end of 2009, and also has unsuccessfully sought a treatment at the beginning of 2010. This was the largest patent infringement judgment ever be upheld by the Federal Circuit.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has withdrawn from the case, which will be heard only of eight judges, which means that Microsoft has to get 5 8 back his case, rather than 5 9.

24 Amicus briefs support position-in total submitted to i4i, including one of the u.s. Government.

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Microsoft co-founder contains bare feud with Gates

Bill Gates betrayed his ailing collaborator and tried to deprive him of his share Microsoft of fortune, according to a scathing memoir Paul Allen, the company's billionaire co-founder.

Allen portrayed Microsoft mogul as a sarcastic Bully, who tried to force its founding partner out of the company and to cut his share in the company, as he is recovering from cancer. Book, idea man: a Memoir of the co-founder of Microsoft, is set to go on sale on 17 April, and an extract appears in maize Vanity Fair magazine and has been released online.

Despite Gatess move held Allen to its Microsoft game — one that has contributed to the lion's share of what Forbes magazine estimates must be a $ billion (£ 8.1bn) fortune.

Even were two inseparable and met at Lakeside high school in Seattle, where Allen paints a picture of the couple as the original geeks. Allen did not text wrapping feature golfers and tennis players "who performed their rackets wherever they went." Then he met in 1968 Gates, another gawky child, which also uses all of his free time Garden chairs over the school's first computer, a ASR-33 teletype model.

"His blond hair went everywhere. You can tell three things about Bill Gates pretty quickly. He was really smart. He was really competitive; He wanted to show you how smart he was. And he was really, really persistent. "

At the age of 13 Gates already poring over Fortune magazine and planning to build a business. When Gates went to Harvard, Allen followed him and the two spent their spare time working on ideas for a software company.

"I assumed that our partnership would be a 50-50 proposition. But the Bill had a different idea, ' writes Allen. Gates had put in more work than Allen, and then after some quibbles from Gates Allen accepted a 64-36 split. Allen writes, when the relationship soured, he wondered again about to split. "I had learned that a great deal was an agreement and word your bond. Bill was more flexible, "he writes. Gates pushed quotes "as hard and what he could."

Relations deteriorated as Microsoft took off. Gates would prowl the parking space to see who came weekend. He thrived on the conflict and sarcasm; He and Allen would argue for hours at a Stretch. Then put Gates in Steve ballmer, the company's current boss, to help manage the company. Gates offered Ballmer 8,75% company's angering other staff and Allen, which was agreed on a much smaller percentage.

In 1982, concluded Allen Hodgkin's lymphoma. When he returned to work relations with Gates and Ballmer hit a new low. Allen claims the couple undermined him and he overheard them discussing ways diluting its shareholding in the company. "Could not stand it anymore, and I dashed them and shouted," it is unbelievable! It shows your true nature, once and for all, ' "he writes.

Ballmer and Gates apologized later but the partnership was over. Allen resigned and Gates attempted to buy him for $ 5 a share. Allen refused and said he would discuss less than $ 10. Gates and Allen balked price with what had been an enormous fortune. Shares trading on more than $ 25 and the company is now worth more than $ 214bn.

"While I remember many of these events may deviate from Paul 's, I appreciate his friendship and important contribution to the world of technology and at Microsoft," Gates said in a written statement to the Wall Street Journal.

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