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For more than three years now, Microsoft has held to the line that it has loads of patents that are infringed by Google's Android operating system. "Licensing is the solution," wrote the company's head IP honcho in 2011, explaining Microsoft's decision to sue Barnes & Noble's Android-powered Nook reader.
Microsoft has revealed a few of those patents since as it has unleashed litigation against Android device makers. But for the most part, they've remained secret. That's led to a kind of parlor game where industry observers have speculated about what patents Microsoft might be holding over Android.
That long guessing game is now over. A list of hundreds of patents that Microsoft believes entitle it to royalties over Android phones, and perhaps smartphones in general, has been published on a Chinese language website.
The patents Microsoft plans to wield against Android describe a range of technologies. They include lots of technologies developed at Microsoft, as well as patents that Microsoft acquired by participating in the Rockstar Consortium, which spent $4.5 billion on patents that were auctioned off after the Nortel bankruptcy.
The list of patents was apparently produced as part of a Chinese government antitrust review relating to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia. Microsoft described the results of that review in an April 8 blog post, writing that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) "concluded after its investigation that Microsoft holds approximately 200 patent families that are necessary to build an Android smartphone."
To suggest the lists are the "conclusion" of the Chinese government is unusual phrasing. It's unlikely anyone other than Microsoft itself would have the expertise and resources needed to sift through its thousands of patents and decide which ones they believe read on Android.
More likely, Microsoft was compelled to produce the list to appease Chinese regulators, who feared that the software giant could become more aggressive with its patents after the Nokia purchase. It seems equally likely that Microsoft wouldn't be too thrilled about the patents being published on a public webpage. In fact, the English-language version of the MOFCOM site about the merger doesn't have the patent lists.
Doing transparency, the hard way
While Microsoft's blog post talks about hundreds of patent "families," the lists published by MOFCOM make it clear that most of those "families" appear to be one-patent "households."
The Chinese agency published two lists on a Chinese-language webpage where it laid out conditions related to the approved merger. The webpage has an English version, but it doesn't include the patent lists. There's a longer list [MS Word Doc] of 310 patents and patent applications and then a shorter list [MS Word Doc] of just over 100 patents and applications that MOFCOM focused on. The shorter list appears to be a subset of the longer list, divided into families connected to Microsoft technologies like the exFAT file system and Exchange ActiveSync, denoted as patent group 24(EAS) in the short list.
The longer list is divided into three sections: 73 patents that are said to be "standard-essential patents," or SEPs, implemented in smartphones generally, followed by 127 patents that Microsoft says are implemented in Android. The final section includes another section of "non-SEP" assets, which includes 68 patent applications and 42 issued patents.
Of course, the list includes some patents that Microsoft used against Barnes & Noble, including all 14 mentioned in this 2011 Network World article. Those patents include Nos. 5,889,522 entitled "System Provided Child Window Controls," and 6,339,780 "Loading Status in a Hypermedia Browser Having a Limited Available Display Area."
It also has many newer and previously unrevealed patents, like 8,255,379 "Customer Local Search," 5,813,013 "Representing Recurring Events," and 6,999,047 "Locating and tracking a user in a wireless network through environmentally profiled data."
Notably, both the SEP section and the Android-specific section include patents that Microsoft apparently acquired when it participated in the Rockstar bid.
Rockstar paid $4.5 billion for patents belonging to Nortel. Some of those were handed off to Rockstar Consortium, a patent-licensing company that sued Android makers and Google in October. Other patents were handed off to the companies that participated in Rockstar, which included Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson, and Sony.
Nortel patents now owned by Microsoft include 5,982,324, which describes combining GPS with cell signals in an "efficient position location system" said to be used in Android phones. More Nortel patents are in the "general smartphone" section, such as No. 6,430,174, which describes a communication system that supports simultaneous voice and multimedia.
The patent lists are strategically significant, because Microsoft has managed to build a huge patent-licensing business by taxing Android phones without revealing what kind of legal leverage they really have over those phones. Recent estimates of its Android licensing business suggest Microsoft is earning somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion from Android device makers paying royalties. Microsoft said last year more than 50 percent of Android devices are made by companies with licensing deals in place, and the estimates now range as high as 70 percent.
As the debate over patent reform has heated up in Congress over the past year and a half, Microsoft has said it supports bringing more transparency to the patent system. Last year, the company made a big to-do about publishing a full list of patents it owns.
But the recent publications by Chinese authorities, revelations the company likely tried to avoid, are much more indicative of what real patent transparency would look like. If large-scale licensors like Microsoft were forthcoming about what patents they believe their competitors infringe, that would create a much improved system of "public notice" about intellectual property rights. The patent system is supposed to create that "public notice" on its own, but it's sorely lacking. Patents today are written in legalese that can only be interpreted by a select tribe of professionals, and Microsoft benefits by keeping lists like this secret.
This disclosure on a foreign website, presumably compelled by the Chinese government, may produce more "transparency" about Microsoft's campaign against Android than years of unclear threats.
Asked by Ars about the lists, a Microsoft spokesman declined to comment beyond what it said in its April 8 blog post. ###
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) back in February, Nokia surprised people with a new Android-powered smartphone series. The Nokia X line consists of the X, X+ and XL, with the devices designed to fit somewhere between Nokia's low-end Ashas and high-end Windows Phones. There was speculation that once Microsoft had taken over the Finnish manufacturer's mobile business that this new line would be killed off -- keeping the focus solely on Windows Phone devices -- but that turns out not to be the case.
Today Microsoft announces the Nokia X2, which the tech giant introduces "as the newest addition to the expanding Nokia X family of affordable smartphones designed to introduce the 'next billion' people to the mobile Internet and cloud services". Like the Nokia X, the new device gives users access to both Android apps and popular Microsoft services, like Skype, Outlook.com, and OneDrive.
Additional services, including OneNote and Yammer, are available to download for free from the Nokia Store.
The new device is powered by a dual core 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and 1 GB of RAM, and it comes 4.3-inch ClearBlack display, 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera and an 1800 mAh battery. It has a seamless monobody and exchangeable colorful back covers.
It comes with the next-generation Nokia X Software Platform 2.0 and allows users to choose between three UI types -- the Windows Phone style Home screen with resizable tiles, Fastlane, which provides access to recent apps and calendar items, and a new Lumia-inspired apps list. There’s a pull-down notifications tab, a new home key and visual multitasking.
"The Nokia X family is going from strength to strength, with the Nokia X smartphone achieving top-selling status in Pakistan, Russia, Kenya and Nigeria, while earning the third-best-selling smartphone spot in India," says Timo Toikkanen, head of Mobile Phones, Microsoft Devices Group. "The Nokia X2 elevates the Nokia X experience with a stellar new design, ease of use and new Microsoft experiences. We’re proud to continue to bring smartphone innovation to lower and lower price points".
The Nokia X2 will be available at launch in glossy orange, black and green. Glossy yellow, white and matte dark grey will follow shortly afterwards.
The new phone is priced at €99 -- a little more than the €89 Nokia asked for the entry level Nokia X -- and will begin rolling out globally in July. ###
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Clinton Jeff Reviews (Praises) Windows Phone 8.1 ...
"Microsoft’s mobile OS, which until now seemed like it was way behind iOS and Android in terms of features. With Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft has finally caught up, and in some specific ways even managed to exceed rival mobile platforms. At the end of the day, there’s much to like about Windows Phone 8.1, and it’s actually quite impressive what Microsoft has brought to the table. Sure, it took them a while, but Microsoft has finally closed the gap, and it no longer feels like a platform that is trailing behind by years. For the first time, Windows Phone finally feels like a *finished* OS that is no longer in Beta. Now all Microsoft needs to do, is get the app ecosystem sorted." - Clinton Jeff, Unleash the Phones -
"This is pretty exciting: Microsoft is reportedly in the final stages of licensing the Nokia brand, for the purpose of calling the handsets “Nokia by Microsoft.” Furthermore, say goodbye to Surface, and hello to Lumia, as the tablet lineup faces brand streamlining." - @evleaks -
>> Microsoft rumored to be planning to replace 'Surface' branding with 'Lumia'
Summary: Would it help or hurt Microsoft more if the company consolidated its mobile branding using the 'Nokia' and 'Lumia' brands instead of using the current 'Surface' branding?
Mary Jo Foley ZDNet All About Microsoft June 28, 2014
And changing brands mid-stream is hard, expensive and sometimes (often?) ill-advised.
But according to known leaker @evleaks, Microsoft may be doing just that. According to his unnamed sources, Microsoft may be moving toward rebranding its Surface tablets as "Lumia" devices.
@evleaks also claimed that Microsoft may be negotiating to keep the Nokia brand longer than originally planned so that it can use it for future phones and possibly other devices.
Earlier this month, @evleaks published what looked to be some kind of Microsoft "technical branding" guidance document, which indicated that Microsoft planned to phase-out Nokia branding on a very specific schedule: 18 months post close of the Microsoft acquisition of the Nokia handset business for Lumia devices; through December 31, 2015 for Nokia X Android phones; and 10 years for Asha mobile phones. (From the way that planning document is phrased, I would guess it predated the close of the Microsoft acquisition of Nokia's handset business in April 2014.)
I don't have any first- or even second-hand information about these branding rumors. I've asked Microsoft but am not expecting any kind of comment.
I will note that Microsoft has spent a lot to land the Surface brand ever since officials decided to use it to refer to Microsoft's mobile tablet family, rather than its large-screen tabletop devices. The company is continuing to advertise the new Surface Pro 3 massively on TV during the World Cup 2014.
However, the Nokia and Lumia brands have stronger recognition outside the U.S. than they do here. And Microsoft is doing better selling Windows Phones outside the U.S. than here in the States.
Consolidating the Surface and Lumia brands would fit in with the company's "One Microsoft" messaging and positioning. And with Windows Threshold, the next major version of Windows due in spring 2015, Microsoft is expected to launch a single Windows SKU that will work on both phones and touch tablets. Would it be easier to land that unified message if the phones and tablets were all under the Nokia/Lumia brand? Possibly.
Would Microsoft stand to gain more from changing branding at this point in Surface's life -- such as being able to better distance itself from its early Surface history, as well as perceptions by some that the Surface devices aren't selling as well as Microsoft expected -- than it would lose by changing naming conventions at this point? Maybe... ###
- Eric -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
One of Microsoft's main goals with Windows 9, the next major version of Windows, is to win over Windows 7 hold outs. The operating system will look and work differently based on hardware type. Microsoft is looking to showcase the desktop for desktop and laptop users, while two-in-one devices like the Surface Pro or Lenovo Yoga will support switching between the Metro interface and the classic desktop interface. The new desktop will allow Modern UI apps to run in windowed mode, and have Modern UI apps pinned to the Start Menu instead of a Start Screen. There will also be a mini-start menu. Microsoft is looking to undo the usability mistakes it made with Windows 8 for those who are not on a touch device. WIndows 9 is expected around spring of 2015.
It appears also perhaps that Windows Modern apps will come to the desktop, and active tiles from the Start Screen will be able to live on the start menu.
Looks sort of like the Windows Phone menu is integrated into the Windows start menu. Very smart idea..
A leaked alpha of Windows 9 has been brewing on the internet. Today a screenshot shows what MS showed us at BUILD which includes a start menu with additional tiny tiles for things like people, calendar, pc settings, and news etc. " The new hybridized Start menu appears to be part of build 9788, which was compiled on July 4. While no one seems to have leaked the ISOs for build 9788 yet, the general consensus seems to be that the build does indeed exist somewhere at Microsoft — and that it might also feature Windows NT kernel version 6.4 (i.e. the complete version number is 6.4.9788). The screenshots show a Windows 8.1 Pro watermark, but this isn’t unusual for a very early alpha of a new build of Windows. If this really is the next version of the Windows NT kernel, then we’re most likely looking at an early build of Windows 9 (Threshold) rather than Windows 8.2."
via Slashdot
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Long time Microsoft Watcher anf Vulture Central's former 'Man in San Francisco' reacted in similar fashion to me after reading Nadella's latest Vision thingie ...
If you are a Microsoft salesman keen to answer key questions from customers such as: "What will you be doing differently?" or "What will be new and exciting?", you will have nothing new from the CEO to go on.
Nadella's "memo" is not just verbose, it's thick with repetitive platitudes and windy aspirations - so much so it almost makes you yearn for Steve Ballmer's bluntness. Clarity and direction were mostly lacking - two things Microsoft most needs right now.
Nadella gave his readers a Bollywood-length epic of motivational clichés. "Our first-party devices will light up your digital work and life" was one of the most wretched. Another contender was "drive customer usage first and foremost" … a radical idea nobody has yet tried. Or how about "Microsoft has a unique ability to harmonize the world's devices (by remotely turning them all off? - ed] apps, docs, data and social networks in digital work and life experiences so that people are at the center and are empowered to do more and achieve more".
It's all weirdly disembodied and robotic - perhaps an early experiment with "Cortana (CEO Edition").
Many hoped that with the ascent of Nadella - who is hard-working and bright, and who has done a brilliant job with Microsoft's cloud Azure - Microsoft would be getting more than a functional, process-driven COO filling the CEO's shoes, with the Board continuing to pull the strings. But reading his memo, they may getting a sinking feeling.
We know the Board remains hopelessly divided over strategy, giving a seat to an activist shareholder who wants to see Microsoft shed its consumer businesses, and focus on higher margin, more profitable enterprise IT. Yet the Board/Nadella (Boardella?) didn't give a compelling reason why Microsoft should continue to dabble in tablets, make "first party hardware", (that's the new expression for own-brand Lumia smartphones and Surface) or consumer services.
Nadella had previously tried to put a sticking plaster over the gash by inventing a new cliché - "Cloud first Mobile first" - but this has already come unstuck. The dilemma highlighted by "Cortana-gate" is that there will be times when they can't both come first - you deprecate the interests of one platform (such your branded hardware) to advance the interests of another (such as your branded service). Or vice versa.
But Nadella could have done things a little differently. He could have offered some bold new initiative to differentiate Microsoft as a platform from company. There are many ways Microsoft isn't Google, but apart from the "Scroogled" ad campaign, it's oddly nervous about saying so. Microsoft could, for example, share anonymised consumer data with business, commoditising the data just as it commoditised the personal computer.
The speech-that-wasn't-a-speech could have benefited from using Microsoft's own products as concrete illustrations. The challenge is why Microsoft needs to retain a consumer division, but this is best illustrated by real examples – where the benefit is positive, or where the distinction between consumer and enterprise is meaningless. Or where consumer drives IT sales (or even vice versa), for example.
There was little recognition that when Microsoft's "consumer experience" is compared to the iPad, Microsoft doesn't come well out of it. Surface might look beautiful and be full of clever hardware - but I can't envisage anyone managing a decent size music or photo collection using just the Metro software - it just isn't up to the job. Can you? It would take an honest CEO to say so.
And where Nadella has stamped a personal hallmark, it's quite ominous - as readers have already spotted.
"Each engineering group will have Data and Applied Science resources that will focus on measurable outcomes for our products and predictive analysis of market trends," is one of the few concrete promises he made. Words to set the pulse racing, and as readers have pointed out, Windows 8 didn't fail because the programmer's lacked market data or didn't have enough focus groups. It was questionable strategy executed using some pretty awful design.
"Thinking that statistics and data are about numbers is like thinking that the Declaration of Independence is about spelling and grammar; statistics is about insight," responded one reader. "And then I felt better about Windows 8 being data-driven: they just didn't collect the right data or they mis-interpreted it (or, even more likely, they extrapolated beyond the circumstances that gave rise to their data)."
Sinofsky's catastrophic management created to a lot of pain (disrupting the Windows upgrade cycle and the revenues that come with it; inviting businesses to look to Apple and Google for productivity platforms) and no discernible gain. I predicted Surface would be landfill in 2012 - and the costs continue to mount.
Employees will also be promised greater mobility "to move about the company". This means less ownership of products, and a higher risk that they will take less personal responsibility for failures. How does this square with Nadella's "more emphasis on accountability"?
To conclude, Nadella is still relatively new in the CEO's seat and he may still be in a honeymoon period with most Microsoft watchers. But six months on, there's no indication that he has something interesting to offer other than efficiency and data-driven managerialism. I hope I'm wrong, but we didn't see it last week. ®
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Summary: Microsoft is believed to be ready to cut thousands of jobs this week as part of management's attempt to focus on areas where the company can win. Which teams are likely to take the brunt?
Microsoft is expected to cut thousands of jobs, most likely this week, just ahead of its Q4 fiscal 2014 earnings report next week.
Expectations are the Nokia handset division, which Microsoft officially acquired earlier this year, will bear the brunt of the cuts. (Microsoft acquired 25,000 Nokia employees as part of that transaction, adding to its workforce of close to 100,000.) Beyond those possible cuts, Microsoft also may cut more jobs in marketing across the company, Bloomberg reported on July 14, as it did in 2009 when it shed more than 5,000 employees.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is working to focus the company on fewer, key areas where it has a better chance of winning. The areas where Microsoft is trumpeting its wins at this week's Worldwide Partner Conference are largely in the cloud -- with Azure, Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online -- and Office, Windows Server and business intelligence/SQL Server on premises.
The areas where Microsoft is struggling right now -- in terms of market share, positioning or both -- are in Windows on non-PC form factors (in other words, Windows 8, not Windows 7), Windows Phone (both hardware and software), Surface tablets and Xbox consoles.
Some on Wall Street, such as its newest board member, ValueAct's Mason Morfit, are believed to be in favor of Microsoft sticking to its enterprise software and services knitting. Things like tablets and gaming consoles don't have the meaty margins that software and cloud services do, they argue.
But Microsoft officials continue to publicly espouse the belief that Microsoft needs to be a player in both consumer and enterprise because -- as Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told Microsoft's resellers this week at the partner show -- customers are "dual users" with intertwined home and business lives.
Microsoft is in the midst of attempting to pivot and remake itself as a "productivity and platforms" company, rather than a devices and services company. That change is more than semantic. In the post-Ballmer Microsoft, hardware is interesting only insofar as it "lights up" productivity software and services.
Does that mean Microsoft will or should offload its hardware-focused businesses and leave the building of gadgets and appliances up to its OEM partners? I think many on Wall Street would say yes, but Microsoft management still seems to be saying, at least for now, no.
So if you're Microsoft management, where do you make cuts if you're trying to pare Microsoft down to core businesses where it has the best chance of winning?
Do you continue along the low-cost, high-volume path, which has been where Microsoft traditionally has focused? In the case of Windows Phone, that might make sense, given the bulk of Microsoft's success with that platform has been with cheaper smartphones, not higher-end flagship Lumia phones. If that's your plan, things like an Android phone running Microsoft software and services make more sense.
Or do you shift gears and focus on offering premium software, services and hardware like Surface tablets and Perceptive Pixel large-screen touch displays? Leave the race to the bottom to Android vendors and focus on finding ways to upsell users on more premium hardware, software and services?
I don't know which way Microsoft will go. I'm thinking the expected layoffs -- based on what the company has done in the past when it has cut jobs -- won't result in many entire product lines or divisions being axed. (And at least some of those cut are likely to end up in new roles at Microsoft if the past is any indication.) But the cuts should provide more of an indication of where this "productivity and platforms" company will focus in 2015 and beyond. ###
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
