And, like Microsoft, the point-and-figure projects to another 30% or so to the downside.
But at this point, Microsoft has not only caught Sony but left it far behind.
At no point has Microsoft offered to open its own chat client to AOL or anyone else -- openness only goes one way here.
His case in point is Microsoft's biggest-ever cathedral, Windows 2000.
This is clearly no longer a market that Apple and Google maintain for the sake of the ecosystem and phone sales, though Canalys point out Microsoft and BlackBerry urgently need innovative apps highly attuned to their specific target markets.
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Some people will notice that Nokia is building a special relationship with Microsoft, to the point where the manufacturer is able to deliver more exclusive features in its phones and push for things to be added in later revisions.
Once the last 10 yards of rail road is built, and I reckon we're looking at 2007, and we can watch our Broadband TV actually on our TV set, then that will be the point when Microsoft and co move from being complementary offers to becoming genuine competitors to Sky, NTL, and Freeview.
If Microsoft makes concessions on this point, "The remedy could be slight, " Lessig says.
They point glowingly to Microsoft's total domination of the desktop, its market-leading productivity software packages, and its aggressiveness on the Internet.
Critics point out that Microsoft's track record in hardware is mixed.
However, Johnson was quick to point out that Microsoft's increased role does not mean that its support partners will suffer, in what has been a highly lucrative field for them.
By crushing Nokia, Apple and Google took 5% out of the Finnish economy, wiped out the post-Psion, British OS Symbian, which had already found its way into over 350 million smartphones, and relegated Nokia to the status of struggling niche player, dependent on another US company, Microsoft, just at the point where it was going to write a new chapter in mobile, augmented reality and mapping.
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It is interesting you fail to point out that currently Microsoft is making more money from Android than Google is!
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Over the years, Sony has bulked up its roster of exclusive titles to the point that it makes Microsoft look sheepish.
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Microsoft, of course, would point back to the surveys above to argue that consumers in general do prefer not to be tracked.
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Better still, from Apple's point of view, Microsoft has to keep its doors wide open to whatever Apple product Jobs cares to give away.
What Microsoft unveiled Monday could become the starting point for some very good phones.
Microsoft, the cable people like to point out, is not the only game in town.
In their Friday-night spinathon, Microsoft's legal experts hastened to point out that this conclusion is not a certainty.
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But celebrating these features seems dated at this point, as Sony and Microsoft ushered in HD (and Sony 3D) long ago, building up online entertainment networks far more advanced than what Wii U is introducing.
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While Microsoft might not best Apple at every point of audio ecosystem -- and the glaring lack of an iPod Touch or iPhone competitor makes much of this irrelevant for many people -- Apple's refusal to build a subscription service makes Zune Pass one of our few choices for a well-integrated player and subscription software combo.
So it should be no surprise that the Microsoft private cloud will be a core focus point for the show.
Unfortunately, news on the video store front isn't so compelling: Microsoft is only adding TV shows at this point, no movies, and there's no way to pull video you've bought on your 360 over to your Zune.
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Case in point is Windows Phone, as Microsoft has just announced that it's adopted traffic information from Nokia into the Maps app of its mobile OS. In addition to providing Windows Phone users in the US with more detailed overviews of traffic flows and congestion, the functionality will soon become available for many cities across the globe.
Microsoft's critics complain that the company doesn't act in good faith: they point out that this case was filed in the first place when Justice determined Microsoft had violated a 1995 consent agreement.
However, it may be impossible for Microsoft to sell the device at any low price point without taking a loss.
Microsoft probably has to do something transformative at this point, like spinning off its online business or partnering with Yahoo!
At this point most aren't happy with Microsoft's progress of adding new features to Windows Media Center, but lucky for Blu-ray fans there are other companies willing to pick up the slack.
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Though Surface is clearly a tablet device, Sinofsky pointed out that the process of developing Windows 8 (on which Surface's Windows RT operating system is based) started in the summer of 2009, when there was no Apple iPad as a reference point (though it remains unclear if Microsoft began working on its tablet at that time).
In the long run however, I think that ditching the point system would be the right move for Microsoft.
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