A new quasi-trade group has formed to promote indoor location and mobile indoor-positioning. It's called "The In-Location Alliance." Its stated objective is to "drive innovation and market adoption of high accuracy indoor positioning and related services." The In-Location Alliance is made up of a group of 22 founding members, led by Nokia: Broadcom, CSR, Dialog Semiconductor, Eptisa, Geomobile, Genasys, Indra, Insiteo, Nokia, Nomadic Solutions, Nordic Semiconductor, Nordic Technology Group, NowOn, Primax Electronics, Qualcomm, RapidBlue Solutions, Samsung Electronics, Seolane Innovation, S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing

Microsoft posted their fourth-quarter 2012 earnings for the year today, boasting 7% increase in overall revenue and a 12% increase in operating income. Microsoft, for the first time in a long time, reported a net loss of $492 million due to a large acquisition. The online service department, which consists of Bing, saw a 12% increase in advertising revenue, which Microsoft says was driven by "improvement in search." Revenue for the online service division grew 8% for the fourth quarter and 10% for the full year. While Bing organic U.S. search market share was 15.6% for the month of June 201 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues

Microsoft is betting big on the social enterprise. As we and others reported a couple of weeks ago the company is acquiring Yammer, which has been described as "Facebook for Enterprises." Microsoft said earlier today that it was buying Yammer for $1.2 billion in cash. Yammer will become part of the Office division and current CEO David Sacks will continue to run the team and the product, which will continue to have a stand-alone identity. Sacks will report to Kurt DelBene, head of Microsoft's Office Division. Over time Microsoft will integrate Yammer more deeply into a variety of its p [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft | Microsoft: Business Issues

After seeing yet another "hands-on" review of the Microsoft Surface tablet, I thought it would be interesting to shed more light on what exactly the journalists who assembled in Hollywood this week for the Surface launch event actually got to do with the tablets. In short, not a lot. Come along as I explain the hands-off reality of what I saw. Anticipation, It's Making Me Wait... When everyone checked-in before the event started, they were given small plastic cards with a time printed on them. We weren't told what these were for. Mine said 5:50pm. The purpose became clear after the event e [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Microsoft: Surface | Top News

There were two big announcements this week coming out of Microsoft: the Surface tablet PC and the new mobile OS, Windows Phone 8, which will be closely aligned with the desktop version of 8. At the same time the company announced that it had reached 100,000 mobile apps for the Windows Phone. What now comes into clearer focus is Microsoft's larger integrated PC-mobile push. This is Microsoft's "one-two punch" and effort -- last ditch according to some -- to slow the iPad and deterioration of the PC market and re-insert itself into the consumer conversation. Is This "Desperation" or a Bold N [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Microsoft: Mobile | Microsoft: Surface | Top News

Saying just as it needed to build its own mice at first, Microsoft announced today that it was releasing its own branded tablet called the Microsoft Surface with integrated keyboard. "Because of Windows 8, the Surface is a PC, the Surface is a tablet, and the Surface is something new that we think people will absolutely love," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking at the event. Below is my live blogging from Microsoft's event in Hollywood is below. More info from Microsoft is at the end. Steve Ballmer has come out: He's talking about Microsoft transforming so many things. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Microsoft | Microsoft: Mobile | Microsoft: Surface | Top News

Later this afternoon in Los Angeles Microsoft is expected to introduce its own entry into the tablet market, perhaps in conjunction with Barnes & Noble. The event will happen at 3:30 Pacific time. Danny is there (at LA's Milk Studios) and will be covering it live. Check out Danny's live blog of the event in progress.  The tablet will apparently offer XBox live streaming, according to various reports. Xbox is an enormously popular set-top gaming platform and the angle could work to generate attention and interest for the new tablet. There is currently no Microsoft-based tablet in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Microsoft | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Mobile | Top News

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Microsoft is acquiring Yammer, a business collaboration and communications platform for employees that is often characterized as "Facebook for enterprises." The speculated acquisition price was $1.2 bilion. Neither company commented or confirmed the acquisition. Yammer, which is one of several such social enterprise collaboration software tools, describes itself in the following way: Yammer brings the power of social networking to the enterprise in a private and secure environment. Yammer is as easy to use as great consumer software like F [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Microsoft | Top News

Microsoft Advertising is rolling out what it calls a "Conversation Ad" for Skype -- a 300x250 medium rectangle that sits in the Windows version of the client when a non-paying user is on a call. It's the first new advertising format since the company bought Skype for $8.5 billion last year. "Right from the start, we’ve been working together to identify ad opportunities that strike the right balance between protecting the wonderful Skype consumer experience and creating meaningful opportunities that enable you to tell brand stories," Jos Moore, general manager of advertising incubations at [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Microsoft: Mobile | Mobile Marketing

Millward Brown has released the 2012 BrandZ Top 100 Brands report and topping the list is Apple, followed by Google at number three and Microsoft at number five. In fact, four of the top five are technology companies, with McDonalds at number four. Facebook is now number 19 on the list, improving 16 positons from last year. Chinese search engine, Baidu jumped four positons to number 25. To learn more about how these top brands are ranked, see their ranking methodology. Here is their infographic: [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Facebook: Marketing | Google: Marketing | Microsoft: Business Issues | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Congrats, Mark Zuckerberg. You went public on Friday, got married on Saturday and now as a special present from part-owner and best partner Microsoft have a new social network to contend with: Microsoft's So.cl. But don't worry too much. I just spotted the news of So.cl going live on Techmeme. This being a Sunday, I wasn't planning to work. However, I couldn't help but go in and play around. So here's a quick rundown on the social network with a triple-handicap: why use it instead of Facebook, instead of Google+ or instead of the new Bing that just added social features. Share Searches, Di [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Microsoft: So.cl | Top News

Bing’s Search Summit is today at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT and we will be live blogging the details from the event here. It's focused around the relaunch of Bing, which you can read about in detail on our sister-site, Search Engine Land, here: The New Bing: Microsoft Tries Again With Search Meets Social. Qi Lu (President, Online Services Division), Derrick Connell (Corporate Vice President, Search Program Management), Harry Shum (Corporate Vice President, Core Search Development), and other members of the Bing engineering team will discuss the latest Bing news. You can also watch the live st [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Microsoft: Bing

A couple of recent articles have looked at the current state of browser usage, but they don't agree on which browser is No. 1 right now. On Wednesday, Shareaholic -- the social media button provider -- shared a chart showing browser usage in April across more than 200,000 publisher sites that use its buttons. According to their data, Chrome has a five percent lead over Internet Explorer, with Firefox a very close third. Shareaholic puts Safari at about 13 percent overall market share -- a number that includes iOS traffic. Android browser usage is also on the rise as you can see abov [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Safari | Channel: Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Firefox | Google: Chrome | Microsoft: Internet Explorer | Top News

Just two weeks after Microsoft bought more than 925 patents from AOL, the company is turning around and selling about 650 of them to Facebook. The deal also allows Facebook to license the other AOL patents that it's not buying from Microsoft. According to today's announcement, the sale will cost Facebook about $550 million -- close to half of what Microsoft originally spent on the AOL patents. Microsoft says the sale is motivated by financial reasons. "Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction," says Micr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Legal | Legal: Patents | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News

Microsoft announced strong fiscal Q3 results earlier this afternoon. The company reported revenues of $17.4 billion, which was a 6 percent improvement from a year ago. Net income was $5.11 billion. The Online Services Division, which houses Bing and AdCenter, reported revenue of $707 million. There was another loss of $479 million, but that was a roughly $300 million improvement vs a year ago ($776 million). Entertainment and devices also showed a loss of $229 million. Microsoft said it sold 1.4 million consoles in fiscal Q3. But sales were down 48 percent over last year. The company [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Mobile | Top News

AOL and Microsoft have announced an agreement covering the sale of more than 800 AOL patents to Microsoft for $1.056 billion dollars. As part of the agreement, Microsoft also gains a non-exclusive license to more than 300 other patents that AOL is retaining. And AOL also continues to hold a license on the patents that it's selling to Microsoft. The deal comes at a time when tech companies are in something of an arms race over patents, and even a war with Yahoo recently suing Facebook for patent infringement and Facebook counter-suing Yahoo for the same reason. Google bought Motorola Mob [...]

Related Topics: AOL | Channel: Industry | Legal: Patents | Microsoft

As Nokia and Microsoft ready their US push for Windows Phones (Nokia Lumia handsets) in earnest, a number of things stand in the way of this "third ecosystem." Among them lukewarm consumer interest and a lack of apps. Microsoft and Nokia hope that aggressive pricing and marketing will address the former problem. To address the latter issue, the two companies are investing $24 million "into a new mobile application development program, AppCampus, at Helsinki's Aalto University during the next three years," according to Reuters. It's not clear that a developer program at a Finnish universi [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Microsoft: Mobile

There were questions over the weekend about how well iPad sales were going. For example, on Friday gadget blog BGR asked iPad launch day: Where are all the sell-outs? On a conference call this morning about Apple's just-announced stock dividend, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We had a record weekend and we’re thrilled with it.” People immediately wondered what that meant in terms of actual sales. Around 4:00 pm Eastern Apple answered the question, announcing that it had sold three million iPads between Friday and today. Three-Million iPad Weekend Three million iPads is roughly 3X more th [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Google Play | Google: Marketing | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Mobile | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

The partnership that has Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo cross-selling display ads on the other sites is now open for business and up and running, according to a blog post from Microsoft. The relationship, which first came to light in September of last year, is partly a reaction to Google's increasing dominance in the display ad universe. Google overtook Yahoo in display market share for the first time last year, according to IDC. Facebook, too, has become -- and is growing even greater -- a major threat in the display category. Microsoft says its Microsoft Media Network (powered by the Microso [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Google: Display Advertising | Microsoft | Top News | Yahoo

Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish political party the "Pirate Party," formed six years ago around issues related to intellectual property, blogged about an experience of attending a seminar on privacy at the European Parliament in Brussels. The seminar was put on by Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, which is funded by Microsoft. The subject of the seminar was "privacy, big data, profiling, and online identities." Falkvinge was unaware of the group's funding and ties to Microsoft. He expressed indignation upon discovering the session was essentially about attacking G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google | Google: Business Issues | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Microsoft: Business Issues