Recent News

There’s a big shift happening at Microsoft, especially in its enterprise business: As its traditional Windows and Office businesses shrink, it’s turning towards a plethora of subscription-based businesses. In the short run, it kind of stinks for Microsoft – it means that there are literally billions of dollars ($24.5 billion, as of yesterday’s earnings statement) that it’s entitled to under contract, but can’t collect just yet. But this subscription shift reflects a change in Microsoft’s thinking towards the individual user that could become the foundation of the company’s business in the longterm.

Microsoft has updated its Skype app for Android for the second time in two weeks, bringing the app version from 5.5 to 5.6. The updated app comes with new features and a ‘refreshed look’. Skype for Android v5.6 now shows users a greater number of chats in the ‘recent chats’ section if they are engaged in multiple chats simultaneously. “Now a quick glance allows you to catch up on more conversations, and you can easily jump in to start chatting,” adds the company blog post.

Online and mobile restaurant discovery service Zomato announced the launch of its Order app for Windows Phone platform, along with the news that the service is being extended to 14 cities in India. Zomato Order, which branched out its delivery service into a separate app in May this year, enables people to order food online from over 10,000 restaurant partners. The app is already available via the Windows Store.

Flagship smartphones reached India almost 6 months to a year after launch. At Microsoft’s quarterly conference call, CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that company is still in for the hardware business and will not rely entirely on partners. This is good news for current Windows Phone fans, as they can expect some powerful hardware options for their smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft’s move to add flagships to its lineup will certainly add the much needed oomph factor that Windows Phone currently lacks in India.

Microsoft’s Xbox division is seeing good returns. In its Q4 financial report, it was revealed that total revenue for the console rose by 27 percent. First party sales, Xbox Live digital transactions and platform sales all contributed to the growth.

Viju, the global visual communications and collaboration specialist, today announced that it has forged a strategic reseller partnership with Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft Surface Hub partner program. “By combining interactive touch display technology with Skype for Business, Microsoft Office and our Cloud Services, we can provide interoperability with standards-based video and WebRTC from any device. This is a unique visual collaboration solution that will change the way people work,” said Georg Thingbø, CTO, Viju.

Microsoft will be making two services generally available as part of the company’s push to improve the security of businesses’ data. Brad Anderson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of enterprise client and mobility, said that the company’s Advanced Threat Analytics security service would be generally available next month. In addition, the Office apps for iPhone and iPad will be updated to support viewing documents that have been protected with Azure Rights Management.

Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue grew $832 million or 88 percent (up 96 percent in constant currency) driven by Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online and is now on an annualized revenue run rate of over $8 billion, Microsoft reported in its earnings. Earlier this year, CEO Satya Nadella said the company would hit the $20 billion run rate mark for its commercial cloud business in its FY2018. And, while reporting the Q4 earnings figures, he said Microsoft remains “on track to achieve our $20 billion commercial cloud ambition in fiscal 2018.”

According to a study done by IoT Analytics, a global firm that track Internet of Things companies and trends, Microsoft has 3 IoT propositions: Firstly, the Azure platform promises to become the one-stop-shop cloud platform for connected devices. Secondly, Microsoft Streaming Analytics aims to benefit from a new kind of processing that will be necessary to extract meaning from sensor data in real-time. Thirdly, Microsoft has entered the wearables and health space with the Microsoft Band. Apart from these product lines, Microsoft is experimenting in the industrial IoT space.

Come July 29, Microsoft will make Windows 10 available across 190 countries as a free upgrade to computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Following are the reasons to download Windows 10 OS – Faster performance, universal search, personal digital assistant, universal apps, action center, better web browsing experience, increased security, virtual desktop and gaming. The considerable gains in performance, the reintroduction of Start Menu, and the host of solid new features make a compelling case for upgrading.