Smartphones patent wars

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/04/19/exp-ns-smartphone-wars.cnn

El inesperado acuerdo entre Nokia y Microsoft

Autor: Dionisio Guerra

Ayer, muchos quedamos sorprendidos por el anuncio de la alianza estratégica acordada entre Microsoft y Nokia, de la que el mercado ni siquiera había dado pistas.
Ambas empresas ahora pretenden crear en conjunto, un portafolio de productos móviles, lo que significa que Nokia comenzará a usar en sus teléfonos Windows Phone, unirá su tienda de aplicaciones con Microsoft Marketplace y tendrá a Bing como buscador para los dispositivos y servicios. Microsoft por su parte usará Nokia Maps como base principal de sus servicios de mapas, usará sus herramientas de desarrollo para crear aplicaciones que corran en teléfonos “Nokia Windows”, como parece se llamara la plataforma producto del acuerdo.
En los últimos años Nokia vio opacado su liderazgo en cuanto a teléfonos móviles, primero con la aparición del iPhone, el teléfono de Apple, y de un par de decenas de dispositivos con Android, el sistema operativo para móviles creado por Google.
Para el actual CEO de Nokia esto parece estar claro. “Nokia se encuentra en una coyuntura crítica en la que se hace evidente que es necesario e inevitable realizar un cambio significativo. Hoy estamos acelerando ese cambio a través de un nuevo camino, apuntando a reconquistar nuestro liderazgo en smartphones, reforzando nuestra plataforma de dispositivos móviles y definiendo nuestras inversiones futuras”, aseguró.
Según Nokia, con este movimiento, Symbian, el sistema operativo principal de esta compañía que cuenta con 200 millones de usuarios, se convertirá en una plataforma de franquicia. Aun así esperan vender 150 millones más de dispositivos Symbian en los próximos años. Su otro sistema operativo Meego, se convertirá en un proyecto de sistema operativo móvil open source.
Además, a partir del 1 de abril Nokia estrenará una nueva estructura con dos unidades de negocio distintas: Smart Devices (Dispositivos Inteligentes) y Mobile Phones (Teléfonos Móviles), este último para productos masivos.
Esto es una interesante jugada para el mercado de teléfonos móviles. Creo que esta historia continuará.

Microsoft: June 30 Windows XP cut-off set in stone

Microsoft made it official on April 3: There will be no new reprieves for Windows XP (other than on Ultra Low-Cost PCs).

Some customers and partners had been hoping the company might extend again the deadline for all PC makers to be allowed to preload Windows XP, rather than Windows Vista, on new PCs. But today, Microsoft officials said the current June 30, 2008 cut-off date would remain in place for the vast majority of machines.

The one new exception, as some were anticipating, are Ultra Low-Cost PCs (ULPCs), which Microsoft defines as systems like the Asus Eee and Intel Classmate — “significantly more restricted hardware with less expensive processors and more limited graphics capabilities. ULPCs should not be confused with the higher-priced and more robust UMPCs, or Ultra-Mobile PCs (a k a “Origami” devices); Microsoft is continuing to encourage UMPC makers to build their systems around Vista.

As Microsoft officials announced on April 3, makers of ULPCs will be allowed to continue to preload XP on ULPC machines until June 30, 2010, or one year after general availability of the next version of Windows, whichever comes first later (sorry, my error), according to Microsoft.

(Microsoft has said that its target delivery date for Windows 7, the next version of Windows, is some time in 2010.)

The majority of, if not all, ULPCs are incapable of running Vista, with its higher RAM and graphics requirements. But they can and do run Linux. That proved to be a good incentive for Microsoft extending the XP cut-off deadline for those low-end machines.

For plain-vanilla PCs, Microsoft is holding fast to its June 30 preload cut-off for XP. (In September, Microsoft granted PC makers a five-month extension, allowing them to continue preloading and selling at retail Windows XP until June 30 of this year. ) As Microsoft noted previously, users still will be able to get XP preloaded on new machines from white-box vendors/system builders through January 31, 2009. And Vista Business and Ultimate customers with volume-license contracts can still get XP via their “downgrade” rights.

Microsoft will still provide mainstream (free) support for XP until April 2009. Extended support (free for security fixes and paid for other help) ends in 2014.

What’s your take? Did Microsoft make the right decision in holding fast to the June 30 XP cut-off date?

Related Articles:

PC makers find ways to extend XP's life

How to Keep Running Windows XP

Microsoft Tells Yahoo To Accept Offer or Face Hostile Takeover

By Jessica MintzAssociated Press

SEATTLE, April 5 — Microsoft urged Yahoo accept its $41 billion buyout offer, warning in a letter Saturday that if a deal wasn’t reached by April 26, it would launch a hostile takeover at a lower price.

“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board,” Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, wrote in the letter.

“If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.”

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment.

In the letter, Ballmer said Yahoo’s search share and page views, two measures of the strength of the Web portal company’s business, appear to have fallen since the end of January, when the cash-and-stock offer was made. At the time, Microsoft’s offer was valued at $44.6 billion, or 62 percent above Yahoo’s market value. The deal is now worth just under $41 billion, based on Friday’s closing stock prices.

Yahoo’s board formally rejected Microsoft’s bid in February, saying it was too low. Since then, the Silicon Valley company has explored alliances with Google, News Corp.’s MySpace.com and Time Warner’s AOL, but no alternative to Microsoft’s offer has surfaced.

Ballmer acknowledged the alternative negotiations and questioned why, in the absence of another offer, Yahoo was still dragging its heels.

“This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares,” Ballmer wrote. He said the Microsoft offer has strengthened as the economic climate has weakened.

“We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment,” Ballmer wrote, despite a recent Yahoo forecast that its revenue would rise more than 70 percent during the next three years.

Microsoft has said from the start that it would consider all means of completing the deal. Those possibilities taking its offer directly to Yahoo’s shareholders, as well as working to elect its own candidates to fill Yahoo’s board at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Yahoo has not set a new date for the meeting. Before Saturday, it was known that Microsoft had hired a proxy solicitation firm to help with a hostile bid, but it had not said when it would take such action.