Recent News

FreeCharge has launched the world’s first “speak to recharge” feature to on its mobile app for Windows Phones. Commenting on the launch, Joseph Landes, General Manager – Developer Experience, Microsoft India, said, “Since its launch on the Windows Phone store, FreeCharge has become immensely popular with consumers for the ease with which it allows them to transact online. Providing a great user experience is critical to Windows apps and we are sure our users will find the inclusion of the ‘speak to recharge’ feature useful.”

In his first shareholder meeting as chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp, Satya Nadella emphasized one message: Diversity matters. “We will make progress every year towards building a more diverse workforce and creating opportunities at every level of the company for all of Microsoft’s employees,” Nadella said at the meeting, which was attended by several hundred shareholders and featured a cameo appearance from former CEO Steve Ballmer.

Lava is the latest company to join the Windows Phone bandwagon with the launch of the Iris Win1, priced at Rs. 4,999 in India. Commenting on the launch of Iris Win1, Navin Chawla, Vice President and Head-Product, Lava International Limited said, “We are pleased to add Iris Win1 – Windows powered device in our smartphone portfolio for consumers who are looking for Windows platform.” Rajiv Ahlawat, Director, Mobility, Microsoft India, stated, “Our deep engagement with local OEMs is one of the engines of growth for Windows Phone and we are proud of our partnership with Lava. With the Iris Win1, Windows Phone is now available to a whole new group of consumers in India, who are looking for innovation and value.”

HP announced on December 2 at the company’s HP Discover conference that it will sell Microsoft’s Office 365 coupled with HP services as a single enterprise bundle. HP’s new offering, called HP Enterprise Services for Office 365, provides Office 365 business customers with HP services, support and expanded datacenter location options.

Dynamics customers can now get their hands on the suite’s latest update, which includes the ability to add the Cortana voice-command technology to the company’s CRM software. Users will be able to speak voice commands to the software by using the Cortana personal assistant, which only understands English. Some of the tasks that Cortana can handle include searching for contacts and activities, setting up meetings and creating records.

Microsoft’s search engine Bing has revealed top search trends for 2014, the search engine’s annual look-back at what information people are searching for the most on the Internet. Not surprisingly, movies, music, sports, celebrities, politics, and news emerge as the most popular searches among Indian netizens. It revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the most sought-after political leader in India, ahead of even Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.

The research firm,IDC, revealed that political stability and improving economic sentiments helped the software market in India grow by 10.7% in January-June 2014 period as compared to the first half of the previous year. During the period, Microsoft led with 31.8% share of the software vendor market, followed by Oracle at 12%, SAP (6.5%), IBM (5.5%) and Synopsys (4.2%).”There has been a shift in the mindset of users across these industries. IT investments are now made not only for process improvements but also for growing business opportunities and improving customer experience,” it stated.

Celkon Mobiles, one of India’s leading mobile brands launched WIN 400 – it’s first-ever Windows based phone. Y Guru, Chairman and Managing Director, Celkon Mobiles, stated, “We are happy to announce our association with Microsoft and Qualcomm, a new milestone for Celkon.” By launching the Win 400, Celkon has joined domestic handset makers such as Karbonn, Micromax, and Xolo, who have already launched their Windows Phone handsets in the market. “Our deep engagement with local OEMs is one of the engines of growth for the Windows ecosystem and we are proud of our partnership with Celkon. With Celkon’s WIN 400, Windows is now available to a whole new group of consumers in India, who are looking for innovation and value,” said Rajiv Ahlawat, Director, Mobility, Microsoft India.

Microsoft officially announced the acquisition of Accompli -the mobile email management application. The deal enables Microsoft to help people manage their mail on handsets more easily using Google Android or Apple iOS operating systems. “In a world where more than half of email messages are first read on a mobile device, it’s essential to give people fantastic email experiences wherever they go,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Rajesh Jha, in a blog post.

With the Union Government underlining its commitment in the 2014-15 Budget to setting up 100 ‘smart cities’ across the country, sustainable urban renewal powered by citizen-friendly technology is back in the forefront of the national agenda. This edition of Microsoft’s Perspective magazine therefore couldn’t have been timelier, for it takes a bird’s eye view of how smart technology is empowering cities, in India and around the world, to take on urban challenges that have snowballed because of population pressures and over-consumption of our planet’s infinite resources.