Author: Microsoft Stories

Microsoft chief Satya Nadella will meet industry leaders like Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra, Axis Bank head Shikha Sharma and Tata Starbucks CEO Avani Davda during his one-day visit to India on November 5. The India-born CEO will also deliver a keynote address at ‘Microsoft’s Future Unleashed’ event here that will bring together 3,000 industry thought leaders, enterprise heads, developers and entrepreneurs.

PMC-Sierra, the semiconductor and software solutions innovator transforming networks that connect, move and store big data, today announced it has joined the Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance partner program. “Expanding our relationship with Microsoft to include the Cloud Alliance is a natural fit with PMC’s goal to address the expanding requirements of data center and enterprise storage connectivity,” said Pete Hazen, vice president of PMC’s Scalable Solutions Group.

Microsoft has been pushing hard for the Xbox One this season and for good reason. Not only does it have a very strong line-up for the holidays but it’s also gaining momentum on the PlayStation, which has outsold it worldwide thus far. According to Xbox marketing team lead Aaron Greenberg, “If you’re buying a console for games, you’re buying an Xbox. Xbox is the platform with the most games, the most exclusives, and probably the most anticipated game of the year in Halo 5. It’s the greatest Halo ever made. It’s stunning. It’s worth the investment. That game alone is worth the investment.”

Microsoft has been pushing hard for the Xbox One this season and for good reason. Not only does it have a very strong line-up for the holidays but it’s also gaining momentum on the PlayStation, which has outsold it worldwide thus far. According to Xbox marketing team lead Aaron Greenberg, “If you’re buying a console for games, you’re buying an Xbox. Xbox is the platform with the most games, the most exclusives, and probably the most anticipated game of the year in Halo 5. It’s the greatest Halo ever made. It’s stunning. It’s worth the investment. That game alone is worth the investment.”

Halo 5: Guardians is rated “T” for Teen and appears to a younger demographic. It’s interesting when you consider that previous Halo games had M ratings despite their violence not really being much more explicit. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg stated that, “I do expect the T rating will help game sales. Core Halo fans are going to buy the game no matter what the rating is, and I think we’ve seen that. A lot of people were surprised that previous Halo games were M-rated sort of given the style of the game and the lack of real graphic violence and things like that. We’re pleased with the rating.”

Once in a while, Microsoft decides to release the “Work & Play Bundle,” a collection of one-year subscriptions to its best services at a steep discount. For a limited time, the Work & Play Bundle is back.And for $149, you get a lot of good stuff, including subscriptions to Xbox Live and Office 365. Think of it as your gateway drug to the new Microsoft.

Speaking to Gaming Bolt, Anshu Mor, Director of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft India, about the console’s success in India and the efforts being made to appeal to gamers along with the impact that new features like Windows 10 and backwards compatibility will have, said, “Xbox for example is just not built to play hardcore gaming. It is gaming, it is Skype, it is TV, you know it is entertainment, there are a bunch of things that you can do with an Xbox where every person in the family young or old will benefit from the experience.”

Diwali is round the corner and Microsoft exactly knows how to make it special. The tech Microsoft has come up with one of its own kind of deal for this Diwali festive season. The company recently announced a Smart Buybackoffer of INR 7199 on Microsoft Lumia 540. So, this means that you can get the latest and stylish Microsoft Lumia 540 at an amazing buyback price of INR 7199.

Microsoft’s instant messaging platform Skype on Saturday said it was going to enter the mobile messenger service segment to take on WhatsApp and Hike. The company is working on India-specific features to be incorporated into Skype. “We want to make sure our features are available on lots of mobile devices. We are going big in mobile messenger apps. Skype is being optimised for mobile devices,” said Gurdeep Pall Singh, Skype Corporate Vice President.

Customer experience and contact centre solutions company, Genesys, has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to bring rich video support from Skype for Business to the Genesys Customer Experience Platform. Additionally, Microsoft will deploy a Cloud-based contact centre from Genesys for its own global contact centre.