MSFT Sideways In Positive Markets The markets are up in morning trading as investors cautiously re-enter after the past few weeks of sell-offs. The S&P 500 hit a two month low taking out technical levels as investors grew weary of the economic recovery. Shares of MSFT are trading sideways, mostly in the negative, while the rest of tech is up. Upcoming catalysts include entrance in the tablet market;
Windows Phone 7 / Mango adoption with hardware partner
Nokia; strides against current market leaders in cloud computing; making money in the online business including integration of
Skype and improving the search business (retooling the
Bing /
Yahoo! partnership or just buying them outright); and continued evolution of
Kinect and the next generation
Xbox console. The stock currently trades at
8x Enterprise Value / TTM Free Cash Flow, inexpensive compared to historical trading multiples.
Microsoft's Answer To Google Docs Launches At The End Of June (ZDNet) The re-branded edition of Microsoft's answer to Google Docs is officially launching at the end of June. Jon Roskill, corporate vice president for the worldwide partner group, tweeted that the beta label comes off the productivity and collaboration cloud on June 28, when it will become generally available. Office 365 is Microsoft's successor to its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Live Edu and Office Live Small Business products.
Read » WP7 Sales Are Not Selling As Well As Planned Says AT&T CEO (Engadget) AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega confirmed what many have suspected for quite some time: the WP7 platform hasn't been selling as well as AT&T or Microsoft would have liked. An LG exec earlier this year bemoaned the slow sales of WP7 smartphones so his comments aren't all that surprising, especially since Microsoft hasn't released firm sales numbers. However, the seeds planted by Nokia and Microsoft earlier this year could eventually bear fruit.
Read » If Nokia Executes On Vision, Should Be A Different Smartphone Landscape Next Year (WPCentral) Nokia plans to aid Microsoft in not only providing hardware designs, but by completing the mobile ecosystem with mapping, navigation, location-based apps and services, operator billing, languages and more. Not only does Nokia wish to bring a more complete system to users, but operators are to be supported too through operator customization, carrier billing, network and data efficiencies and marketing. Should Nokia come through with these plans and provide the kick to WP7 that it so desperately needs from the OEMs, then 2012 could be a very different smartphone story than investors anticipate.
Read » New Xbox Design Offers New Interface, Voice Search As Well As YouTube Integration (Mashable) Microsoft unveiled a redesigned version of Xbox Live at E3. The new interface will be broken down into videos, games, music and apps as well as offer Bing voice search, similar to the Metro design on WP7 and eventually Windows 8. The redesign also includes more voice commands, live TV and video partner integration. The Xbox Live service will soon make new videos available through partnerships, including
YouTube. If you can't beat them, join them. Check out some of the
biggest Xbox announcements at
Business Insider.
Read » Kinect Gets Full Support From Top Franchises (Various via techDygest) Good thing Microsoft had a packed line-up of Kinect games to show at its E3 press conference, because last week's rumor about live TV on the Xbox 360 turned out to be a dud. Kinect is almost as popular for its hacks as it is for actually playing games, but Microsoft and its third-party developers are making a hard push for motion and voice-controlled games on the Xbox 360. Popular EA Sports franchises Madden NFL, FIFA World Cup, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour will all join the motion-gaming parade.
Read » Sony Touts 30% Of Video Streaming Comes From PS, Sorry Microsoft (Engadget) While Microsoft's Xbox Live is trying to position itself as the digital hub for living room entertainment, Sony made the case at E3 that it's already the leading game console for streaming video online. CEO Jack Tretton said that Sony is the leading provider of Netflix streams to consumers, accounting for 30% of the video watched on the streaming service. And the PS3 is the only console (of Xbox and Wii) that lets you watch without an additional subscription and in HD.
Read » IDC Slashes WW PC Shipment Growth, Not Great For Microsoft
(Various via techDygest) IDC slashed its worldwide PC shipment growth forecast to about half of its original prediction, as consumer demand for personal computers remains weak in mature markets. Initially, the analysis firm projected 7.1% yearly growth in February, but halved that forecast to just 4.2% growth after a weak first quarter. Not a great forecast for Microsoft who garners a ridiculous percentage of overall sales from Office and Windows.
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