In the News

General Manager, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft India Joseph Landes claims that Microsoft isn’t far behind competitors in the app ecosystem. He acknowledged that Microsoft has less apps when compared to Google Play Store or iOS, but according to him not every app solves problems. He says the most important aspect of Microsoft’s apps is that they are malware free. Landes adds that when it comes to apps from Indian developers, Microsoft is at par both with Google and Apple.

iBall has announced Slide WQ32, an 8-inch Windows based tablet priced at INR 16,999. The device that comes equipped with Microsoft 365 Office having a year’s validity and impressive 1 TB OneDrive storage is arguably the lowest priced Windows tablet. The gadget supports 16 GB inbuilt storage, which can be expanded to up to 64 GB. It sports a 5 MP primary camera accompanied by a flash and also houses a 2 MP front camera, one of the best options provided by gadgets in this category.

Microsoft has unveiled a first look of the new MSN for Asia Pacific including Australia, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. The new MSN combines content from various media outlets with personal productivity tools to help consumers do more at every moment. From September 8, 2014, Microsoft has been inviting people around the globe to try out the new web experience at preview.msn.com, with the new-look MSN officially launching in the coming months.

A new range of media services has been started by Microsoft Azure, including one that makes it possible to conduct text searches of audio and video content. Encoding and streaming services are provided by the new Azure Media Services and these facilities are backed by a content distribution network. Another feature called ‘Advanced Content Indexing’ is based on a research project, which is called MAVIS or Microsoft Audio Video Indexing Service.

By making Microsoft Azure available for SAP applications, Microsoft and SAP have started delivering their global partnership in India. The partnership will allow Indian enterprises to leverage the flexibility and scalability of Microsoft Azure for their mission critical SAP deployments. Microsoft Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables users to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

The online recharge app of FreeCharge is now available on the Windows Phone App Store. With the launch, the startup now has its app on all mobile platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Using this app, consumers can top up their pre-paid mobile cards for all operators, pay their mobile phone bills, re-charge their Direct To Home (DTH) television connections and data cards, and make other payments using their debit or credit cards, and via net banking for all leading banks.

Microsoft has increased the maximum size for files uploaded to OneDrive from 2GB to 10GB, accommodating a top request from OneDrive users to be able to store larger files. Although cloud storage providers now offer consumers massive amounts of space at little to no cost, the size limit on individual files can become a barrier for people who need to store very large files, especially in areas such as media, science, architecture and engineering.

According to the IDC study ‘Worldwide Server Virtualization Tracker Q1 2014’, which measures newly virtualized server hosts every quarter, Windows Server with Hyper-V has become the leading x86 and EPIC-based hypervisor in India. It garnered a 47.5 percent market share in Q1 2014—ahead of its nearest competitor by 3.1 points. Hyper-V is part of Windows Server 2012 R2 and offers world-class features, scalability and flexibility to customers for vitalizing their existing on-premises infrastructure.

As feature phone users in India, who form nearly 70 percent of the mobile phone market in the country, look to transition to ‘affordable smartphones’, Microsoft Devices is looking at bringing down the prices of products in its Lumia series to grab a larger pie of this immensely competitive segment. “Driven by increasing aspirations and the replacement trend, the affordable smartphone segment (Rs 8,000-12,000) is seeing exponential growth,” said Director-Marketing, Nokia India Viral Oza.

Microsoft has launched its revamped news and entertainment portal MSN in India, offering content from a variety of media outlets and several tools for customization. MSN will partner news sources including The New York Times in the US, Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun in Japan, The Guardian and The Telegraph in the UK, Le Figaro and Le Monde in France, and Lance and Estadão in Brazil for content across sections including sports, news, health & fitness, money, travel and videos.