Microsoft will delay one of the major changes to the Microsoft Partner Network gold competency, the company announced this week.
The MPN introduced a revenue bar for gold competencies. For the first year of the program, partners seeking gold only had to make a commitment to achieve a certain minimum level of revenue, referred to as an "acknowledgement." Those commitments, which vary by geography and by competency, range from about $100,000 to $200,000 in the United States. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 21, 20112 comments
It's one thing for Microsoft's Andy Lees to say Nokia is coming out with a handset for Windows Phone "Mango" in the fall. We're sure the statement was vetted and all, but Lees works for Microsoft. Now we're getting confirmation, and context, from Nokia.
In a speech at a technology tradeshow in Singapore today, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop reaffirmed the Finnish company's direction -- an open question given the stock's recent hammering: "Our primary smartphone strategy is to focus on the Windows phone." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 21, 20110 comments
Windows 8 may have a good tablet story, but one of Microsoft's tightest OEM partners isn't waiting around for the new OS's probable release in the second half of 2012.
At the InfoComm show in Orlando, Fla. this week, Panasonic is showing off a Google Android-based Toughbook that will ship in the fourth quarter of this year. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 17, 20110 comments
I probably shouldn't be admitting this, but I played a little Dungeons & Dragons in junior high and high school.
Working with a smartphone app called Shazam to capture the name of a song off the car radio reminded me rather vividly of that geeky pastime last night. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 17, 20110 comments
Don't blink or you'll miss another critical step as Microsoft converges all of its interfaces.
In a 25-day span, Microsoft has unveiled UIs for Windows Phone "Mango" and a tablet-ready "Windows 8," and now has extended the Kinect motion-sensing technology from its Xbox origins to Windows. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 16, 20110 comments
When the Microsoft Partner Info mobile app launched three weeks ago, support for the Apple iPhone platform was conspicuously absent.
Whatever the reasons that Microsoft originally wrote the app only for Windows Phone and Google Android, the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group is now trying to get it into Apple's App Store. And Apple is saying, "Forget it." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 13, 20111 comments
- Keep updated with the latest WPC news at RCP's WPC 2011 page here.
Founder and president of Virgin Group Richard Branson will give the guest keynote at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference next month in Los Angeles.
In announcing Branson as the guest keynoter, Jon Roskill, corporate vice president for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, noted Branson's 1999 knighting for his "services to entrepreneurship" and said Branson fits with the WPC 2011 theme of "Winning Together." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 09, 20110 comments
Back when Microsoft had a reputation as the Evil Empire, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen was the poster child for someone who had been oppressed by Redmond. Which is why it's remarkable to hear Andreessen expressing what sounds like some sympathy for Microsoft right now.
In a recap of the attitude toward a tech bubble among the tech glitterati at last week's All Things Digital Conference, Mark Veverka on SmartMoney wrote: More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 08, 20110 comments
A few months ago we noted, approvingly, a Vanity Fair article that referred to the Stuxnet worm as "something new under the sun." Author Michael Joseph Gross argued that something previously theoretical had been unleashed and was changing future geo-political calculations.
Evidence supporting Gross' view comes this week in a Washington Post article that asserts that cyber-technologies have been integrated into the formal structure of approved capabilities at the Pentagon in the last few months. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 02, 20110 comments
There's a great in-depth profile today in Bloomberg Businessweek on Stephen Elop and the tightrope he's walking as the CEO of Nokia.
While the most newsworthy element is his adamant denial that there are any merger talks going on with Microsoft, the deeper story is the fundamental challenges Nokia faces in nearly all aspects of its business. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 02, 20110 comments
- Keep updated with the latest WPC news at RCP's WPC 2011 page here.
Office 365 and cloud computing, Windows Phone, a Windows slate and sales pitches for the now-seven-month-old Microsoft Partner Network are emerging as major themes for the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.
In the last week, Microsoft released the list of the 10 executives who will fill the main keynote slots between July 11 and 13 in Los Angeles. The speakers and topics provide a fairly strong indication of Microsoft's major themes for the conference. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 01, 20110 comments
Microsoft is trying to raise the profile of the distributors who are available to help other Microsoft partners close Microsoft Online Services deals.
In a blog posting this week, Woody Walton of Microsoft's TS2 team noted that Microsoft is investing millions in the distribution channel annually, in part to help hire and train employees at distributors' call centers. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 01, 20110 comments