We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon
Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Patrick McBride, a spokesman with iSight, says the hackers targeted specific officials using a well-known kind of attack called spear-phishing. Hackers would craft a message with a PowerPoint document attached. For example, they'd say, "We'd like to be involved in the conference."
And when an unknowing recipient opened the corrupted PowerPoint, the file was exploited to load a piece of malware onto the computer that the attacker could then use later to "exfiltrate documents," McBride says.
The hacker group, dubbed the "Sandworm Team," allegedly pulled emails and documents off computers from NATO, Ukrainian government groups, Western European government officials, and energy sector and telecommunications firms.
In the mad dash to grab information, McBride says, the hackers got a little sloppy and dropped hints about their identity. He says they're Russian, "but we can't pinpoint if they work for the Russian government or work in a particular department in the government."
The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to NPR's inquiry. Microsoft says that Tuesday, it's patching the security flaw so that PowerPoint and other Office products can't be exploited again in the same way.
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
A Microsoft smartwatch could be here within weeks Summary: Microsoft's smartwatch could be available before consumers can get their hands on Apple Watch.
By Liam Tung | October 20, 2014 -- 09:09 GMT (02:09 PDT)
Microsoft's long-rumoured smartwatch could be announced within weeks, giving the company a device to square up to wearables from Apple and Google's Wear partners.
The last emblems of Nokia are being removed from Microsoft products. "Microsoft Lumia" is the new brand name that takes their place. The name change follows a slow transition from Nokia.com over to Microsoft's new mobile site, and Nokia France will be the first of many countries that adopt "Microsoft Lumia" for its Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that other countries will follow the rebranding steps in the coming weeks. Nokia itself continues as a reborn company focusing on mapping and network infrastructure services.
via SlashDot
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Microsoft Devices (Lumias & Surface tablets) in CQ3 2014 ...
"Sales of its Lumia smartphones hit 9.3 million in the first full quarter since the close of the Nokia deal. Sales of the Surface tablet more than doubled to $908 million from $400 million in the year-ago quarter." - Reuters on Microsoft Q3 -
Microsoft Devices and Consumer revenue grew 47% to $10.96 billion, while Commercial revenue grew 10% to $12.28 billion.
It's results time again, with an interesting couple of statistics coming from Microsoft's (effective) Q3 financials - it seems (according to Reuters) that 9.3 million Lumia smartphones were sold in the period, a slight increase year on year from Nokia's 8.8 figure in the same quarter last year.
With the sale of Nokia to Microsoft in the intervening year and the disruption that this inevitably caused, the rise in sales is reassuring. In fact, Microsoft generally had a very good quarter. Devices and Consumer revenue grew 47% to $10.96 billion, while Commercial revenue grew 10% to $12.28 billion.
9.3 million Lumias in a quarter (plus, no doubt a million or two from other licensees, including the new ones, a contribution which will only grow and grow) should be put in context against typical Apple iPhone sales of 30 million or so (i.e. only a third as many as iPhone shipments) and typical Samsung Android sales of up to a hundred million per quarter. Worldwide smartphone market share for Windows Phone is still somewhere between 3 and 6% (depending on how you define 'smart', as always), though of course higher, up well over 10% in some markets. Still, Windows Phone is very much still in the game, especially with the Windows 10 thrust/unification happening over the next 12 months [see Below]. ###
>> The next-gen version of Windows Phone to be called "Windows 10"
In an event in the USA today, Microsoft announced the name and desktop features of its next-gen version of Windows, to be dubbed 'Windows 10', and the version that nominally integrates phone, tablet and laptop/desktop in one platform. According to Microsoft, Windows 10 will encompass "one product family, one platform, one store." So, in theory, come the end of 2015, we could be used to talking about Windows 10 on our smartphones.
Details are still very sketchy, and the requirements for Windows 10 are likely to be such that very little 2014 phone hardware will be upgradable. So it's not something most of us will have to worry about in the short term.
Will the software on our phones really be the full 'Windows 10'? Obviously not, Joe Belfiore confirmed that there won't be a 'desktop' in the phone interface (thankfully), and my bet is that the build for smartphones will be an evolution of what we have today, but with even more in common with the desktop in terms of compatibility/universal applications, and so on.
What's next for the 2012/2013 Snapdragon S4-powered phones like the Lumia 920/925/1020? Maybe one more major OS update, WP 8.1 Update 1, maybe Update 2 in the Spring? But probably no more than this. It's possible that Snapdragon 800-powered phones like the Lumia 1520 and 930 might get a sniff of Windows 10, but at this stage it seems unlikely.... and a long way off! ###
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella continues to put his stamp on the company, announcing Wednesday an executive shuffle that involves the departure of former Nokia Corp. chief Stephen Elop.
Mr. Elop was the biggest surprise departure in the executive shuffle. Two other Microsoft executives, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder, will, like Mr. Elop “leave Microsoft after a designated transition period,” the company said in a news release. Separately, Mark Penn, who had served in a senior strategist role, is leaving Microsoft as well.
Mr. Elop’s departure is the latest sign Microsoft is hitting the reset button on its struggling smartphone hardware business. The more than $9 billion purchase of Nokia’s handset business—a deal struck by Mr. Nadella’s predecessor Steve Ballmer in late 2013—was supposed to make Microsoft a relevant player in smartphones.
Instead under Mr. Elop’s leadership at Microsoft, the company’s Windows smartphones lost market share and bled red ink. The company recently said it planned to further cut costs at the smartphone business and other hardware units. Nokia already was targeted for thousands of job cuts in the biggest layoffs in Microsoft’s history, announced last year.
Microsoft’s hardware devices businesses, which Mr. Elop ran, will now be folded into a new division with Microsoft’s operating systems group. Terry Myerson, also an executive vice president, will lead the division. # # #
- Eric L -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
Nadella's Latest 'Streamlining' (Leyyer to employees) ...
Satya Nadella email to employees on aligning engineering to strategy
From: Satya Nadella To: All Employees Date: June 17, 2015 Subject: Aligning Our Strategy & Structure
Team,
As we approach a new fiscal year, I’d like to share with you how we are aligning our structure to our strategy and the changes to our Senior Leadership Team.
Over the past year, I have said that Microsoft aspires to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. To do this, building the best-in-class productivity services and platforms for the mobile-first, cloud-first world is at the heart of our strategy, with three interconnected and bold ambitions:
• Reinvent productivity and business processes • Build the intelligent cloud platform • Create more personal computing
To better align our capabilities and, ultimately, deliver better products and services our customers love at a more rapid pace, I have decided to organize our engineering effort into three groups that work together to deliver on our strategy and ambitions. The changes take effect today.
• Terry Myerson will lead a new team, Windows and Devices Group (WDG), enabling our vision of a more personal computing experience powered by the Windows ecosystem. We will combine the engineering efforts of our current Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group (MDG) led by Stephen Elop. This new team brings together all the engineering capability required to drive breakthrough innovations that will propel the Windows ecosystem forward. WDG will drive Windows as a service across devices of all types and build all of our Microsoft devices including Surface, HoloLens, Lumia, Surface Hub, Band and Xbox. This enables us to create new categories while generating enthusiasm and demand for Windows broadly.
• Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the Cloud and Enterprise (C+E) team focused on building the intelligent cloud platform that powers any application on any device. The C+E team will also focus on building high-value infrastructure and business services that are unique to enterprise customers, such as data and analytics products, security and management offerings, and business processes. Today, we are also moving the development teams who build our Dynamics products to C+E, which will enable us to accelerate our ERP and CRM work even further and mainstream them as part of our core engineering and innovation efforts. C+E will work closely with ASG to ensure the end-to-end experience is cohesive across communications, collaboration and business processes.
• Qi Lu will continue to lead the Applications and Services Group (ASG) that is focused on reinventing productivity. This group is leading the charge in building productivity services for digital work that span all devices and appeal to the people who use technology at work and in their personal lives. ASG has already made advancements in these areas, and the only change as part of today’s announcement is that the engineering efforts to build solutions for Education will move to ASG.
Changes of this nature require us to look at our leadership structure overall, and as a result a few Senior Leadership Team members will leave Microsoft at the conclusion of a transition period.
When Stephen Elop returned to Microsoft, he oriented MDG to create the best Microsoft experience through its devices, inclusive of hardware, software and services. He has been a strong advocate of the need to drive focus and accountability around the delivery of these experiences and has helped drive tighter alignment toward the ambition of more personal computing. With the structural change described above, Stephen and I have agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft. I regret the loss of leadership that this represents, and look forward to seeing where his next destination will be.
Kirill Tatarinov is going to explore what’s next for him. Under Kirill’s leadership, the Dynamics business has grown to a nearly $2 billion business with an ambitious wave of products on the horizon. Perhaps most important though, Kirill and team have shown us that participating in a meaningful way in the CRM and ERP market opens up new opportunities we can uniquely take advantage of by bringing Dynamics into Microsoft’s mainstream engineering, sales and marketing efforts. I am very thankful for Kirill’s unswerving leadership in bringing Dynamics to this point and building a strong leadership team to carry it forward.
After more than 25 years at Microsoft, Eric Rudder has decided to try something new. Eric has played a number of key roles at Microsoft including founding and growing the Server and Tools business in its early days, leading Microsoft Research, and most recently driving our advanced technology and education efforts. I will deeply miss Eric’s passion, technical and business acumen, and keen intellect, and I appreciate all he’s done for Microsoft.
Lastly, a number of months ago, Mark Penn shared with me that he is planning to leave Microsoft in September to form a private equity fund, among other things. Over the years, Mark has leveraged his talents and insights on Microsoft’s behalf. From helping craft a Super Bowl ad and helping design new business and marketing models to his work in data analytics, Mark has helped me set the company on a new course. I’m thankful for the wise strategic counsel Mark has provided, and I look forward to seeing what he does next.
I’ve worked closely with Stephen, Eric, Kirill and Mark and have incredible respect for each of them and wish them well.
I’m counting on our Senior Leadership Team to inspire innovative products and services and lead excellent execution. Our competition and our customers don’t care about our organization structure — they care about innovation. While we are distinctly aligning our engineering structure and core capabilities, our ambitions are interconnected. Success requires all of us — and particularly the Senior Leadership Team — to work across boundaries as one Microsoft and in harmony with our partners. Here’s the new team effective today:
• Chris Capossela, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (will now also take on responsibility for Dynamics and Education marketing) • Kurt DelBene, Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Planning • Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise • Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer • Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development (will now lead our partnerships with mobile operators around the world) • Qi Lu, Executive Vice President, Applications and Services Group • Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group • Harry Shum, Executive Vice President, Technology and Research • Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Legal and Corporate Affairs • Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer (will also now take responsibility for the Dynamics sales and partner organization) • Jill Tracie, Chief of Staff
I’m certain that matching our structure to our strategy will best position us to build products and services our customers love and ultimately drive new growth. Please feel free to send any questions you have to one of the Senior Leadership Team members or me.
Looking forward to what we can do together.
Satya
# # #
- Eric L. -
Microsoft: The Devices and Consumer Segment | Stock Discussion ForumsShare
