One of the first offline training sessions will take place with Microsoft-managed partners in Ivory Coast in the coming months, focusing on capacity building in business and technical skills for Microsoft's partners in Francophone West Africa.
It looks like it is going to be a great Christmas fro Apple, and a not-so-good one for Microsoft and its hardware partners.
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The upcoming release of Windows 8 this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft, so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet space.
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And he adds that there is ongoing substitution of tablets for PCs, while Microsoft and its partners are not up to scale on Win 8-based tabs and hybrids.
That would make it more competitive with the iPod and compelling competition for portable media players from Microsoft partners Samsung, Creative and iRiver, as well as Thomson and Archos.
Microsoft says its software-selling partners asked for the changes.
"Microsoft is creating end-to-end solutions for partners and customers to win in a changing industry where business agility and the use of information technology to drive revenue and profit growth have become critical, " says Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer , 43, in a press release.
For example, Microsoft used to sell its products through partners if the organization had fewer than 5, 000 seats.
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Microsoft has spent its energy helping its partners create applications for its mobile operating system, rather than turning the mobile operating system itself into a vehicle for ads.
Davis, now a partner at venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners, calls the arrangement a good one for Microsoft.
But if past Windows launches are any guide, Microsoft will help its cause by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on high-profile TV ads, viral whisper campaigns and "co-marketing" money for its PC hardware partners and the resellers who push Microsoft software to big corporations.
This service will not be available for MSN TV users, Vongo subscribers, or any other Microsoft partners.
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The three partners invented the WinSenga as an entry for the 2012 Microsoft East and Southern Africa Imagine Cup competition.
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Instead, they choose to shroud the whole process in mystery even with such high-profile partners as Microsoft, which has offered up its Bing Maps software for the program.
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Its potential market share will depend on partners like Samsung, but this strategy worked superbly well for Microsoft for decades with the powerhouse of Wintel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
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Evercore Partners analyst Kirk Materne this afternoon trimmed his EPS estimates for Microsoft for the next couple of quarters to reflect the current shortage of hard-disk drives that has resulted from the recent Thai floods, plus lower gross margin assumptions to reflect increased investment in services and online and a greater revenue contribution from the entertainment and devices segment.
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For the second time, Branson has applied for the seven-year license, leading a consortium whose partners include Microsoft and Cisco.
Some couldn't keep pace with others, forcing Microsoft to sometimes delay key releases so partners could absorb them and create the hardware needed for them.
We know, there was an absolute flood of news from Mobile World Congress today, but day one in Spain has finally come to a close, and it looks like Microsoft is flexing all its muscle to try and lock up partners and rejoin the fight for mobile dominance.
So it makes sense that Microsoft would want to capture some of that for itself and its PC, gadget, and software partners.
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As for the competition, similar rumors about Microsoft turned into an effort that mostly works with partners like Comcast, U-verse, and FiOS, while Google is also pursuing a route of adding to, but not necessarily replacing, cable TV.
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Microsoft and the Gates Foundation have been partners with TechBoston since it got started, and we are very grateful for their support.
As always, we will continue to look for opportunities to support partners who are committed to innovating and driving business for their devices and services built on the Microsoft platform.
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As a result of close work with hardware partners, more than 1, 000 certified PCs and tablets, including Microsoft Surface, will be available for the launch of Windows 8 - making it the best lineup of PCs ever across the Windows 8 and Windows RT ecosystem.
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