RCP's 2011 Round-Up: The 10 Most Popular Blogs of the Year -- Redmond Channel Partner

10. Evading ECHELON, Osama E-Mailed Extensively in Exile (May 13)
FROM THE BLOG: Judging from the cloak-and-dagger precautions he took, he may have been taking pointers from "The Wire." [Read the story here.]

9. Windows Phone 7 To Hit the Verizon Network This Week (May 23)
FROM THE BLOG: Getting Windows Phone 7 onto the Verizon network is one more critical piece in Microsoft's long game in the smartphone market. [Read the story here.]

8. Windows Phone 7 Actually Manages To Lose Market Share (March 7)
READER COMMENT: "I'll give you a big reason why WP7 in its current incarnation will not succeed: Microsoft isn't listening to what their customers WANT." [Read the story here.]

7. Windows 8: Put It on Tablets, Keep It Off PCs (June 2)
READER COMMENT: "This blog could have been easily written with the simple 'Get off my lawn, Windows 8!'" [Read the story here.]

5. On Steve Jobs, Illness and a Last Burst of Creativity (Oct. 7)
FROM THE BLOG: For someone who has said he always sensed death over his shoulder, knowing which of death's horsemen was most likely to catch him appeared to be incredibly motivating for Jobs. [Read the story here.]

4. 5 Reasons Why I Hate Twitter (March 21)
READER COMMENT: "I hate Twitter too...But I sure wish it was my idea. And I'll bet everyone else wishes it was their idea, including Pender." [Read the story here.]

3. Microsoft Pinpoint Heading for a Million Leads? (March 14)
READER COMMENT: "It really baffles me why a Microsoft partner WOULDN'T invest the relatively brief amount of time to create and post a profile in Pinpoint." [Read the story here.]

2. Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango': First Impressions (Oct. 3)
FROM THE BLOG: It's been less than 24 hours since he got the the much-anticipated smartphone update, but Scott's experience has been positive...mostly. [Read the story here.]

1. 4 Obstacles Windows Phone 7 Mango Must Overcome To Succeed (June 16)
FROM THE BLOG: The main takeaway from this entry is that the Boston Bruins are 2011 Stanley Cup champions. That's the important thing here. [Read the story here.]

Coming soon: The top 10 features of the year.

See Also:

Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.
CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.
Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.
Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.