Google vs. Microsoft: Who's Winning?

Google and Microsoft are at each other's throats over everything from patents to Android and Windows Phone market

Google and Microsoft are at each other’s throats over Android.
The simmering rivalry between the two tech giants exploded this week, with executives trading barbs on Twitter and blog posts over patents related to mobile technology.

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This newest burst of aggression has its roots in a high-stakes auction that took place earlier this year. Microsoft and a handful of other companies submitted a $4.5 billion winning bid for some 6,000 patents and patent applications formerly owned by Nortel. Google wanted the same property, but its own bid of $900 million couldn’t quite seal the deal.

Now Google seems concerned that Microsoft and its consortium partners (which include Apple, not exactly the search-engine giant’s bosom buddy) will use those patents to sue Android manufacturers into the ground. Indeed, Microsoft is rapidly making an industry out of what it claims are Android’s violations of its intellectual property: in addition to squeezing royalties from any number of Android-device manufacturers, the company has filed patent-infringement suits against Motorola (maker of Android-based smartphones and tablets) and Barnes & Noble (which produces the Nook, an Android-based e-reader).

“Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together, you have to start wondering what’s going on,” David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer, wrote in an Aug. 3 posting on The Official Google Blog. “Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anticompetitive means—which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop.”

He went on to claim that the Justice Department is “looking into whether Microsoft and Apple acquired the Nortel patents for anticompetitive means.”

Microsoft executives felt compelled to fire back.

“Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, wrote in an Aug. 3 Tweet. “Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.”

The same day, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of corporate communications, also Tweeted: “Free advice for David Drummond—next time check with Kent Walker before you blog.”

He included a link to an Oct. 28 email sent to Brad Smith by Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, suggesting that “a joint bid wouldn’t be advisable for us on this one.”

Rather than let Microsoft blow a hole beneath the waterline of his tight little narrative, Drummond updated his original post Aug. 4: “If you think about it, it’s obvious why we turned down Microsoft’s offer,” he wrote. A joint acquisition of the patents “that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners.”

A number of analyst estimates have Android leading the mobile market. According to recent data from Nielsen, for example, Android held 39 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, followed by Apple’s iPhone with 28 percent, RIM with 20 percent, and Microsoft with 9 percent. Similarly, research firm comScore placed Android’s share of the U.S. market at 40.1 percent, followed by Apple with 26.6 percent, RIM with 23.4 percent and Microsoft with 5.8 percent.

Combined with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s recent admission that Windows Phone’s market share is “very small,” it seems Android is handily winning the mobility wars despite Microsoft’s patent maneuvers. That being said, Microsoft seems to have found a viable source of revenue in its latest string of Android lawsuits and “royalty agreements,” something the company is likely to vigorously push in quarters ahead; Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst of J. Gold Associates, recently theorized that Microsoft’s cash stream from Android royalties could even top that of Windows Phone.

Meanwhile, Google’s core business—search—continues to outpace Microsoft’s Bing, although the latter has enjoyed incremental market share gains over the past several quarters. Microsoft has demonstrated a willingness to burn hundreds of millions of dollars to keep itself in the search game, something that makes its investors nervous—but doesn’t seem to have any appreciable effect on Google’s ability to earn lots of cash from advertising.

So Android continues to handily dominate Microsoft in the actual mobility and search markets, but Microsoft has a variety of good legal cards to play in order to make life more difficult, both for Google and its manufacturing partners. In other words, look forward to some messy battles (and more irate blog and Twitter posts) to come.

Chrome 13 Stable as Google Pays 17K for Bug Fixes

Google's Chrome browser version 13 is stable, featuring Instant Pages predictive search technology, print preview for Windows and Linux machines, as well as a better omnibox. Also featuring: 30 bug fixes.

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Google has taken Chrome version 13 stable (technically Chrome 13.0.782.107), fixing several bugs and turning the search engine's new Instant Pages feature on as the browser’s default. The next step in Google’s predictive-search technology, Instant Pages is based on a Google-developed prerendering technology that prepares the top search result in the background while a user chooses which link to click. The company says this saves users two to five seconds on typical searches.

Ideally, this technology removes the latency many Web pages exhibit when users click on them. This could, in turn, possibly entice more people to tap Chrome—which has a 13.5 percent market share worldwide—as their search browser of choice.

Also with Chrome 13, print preview is available for Windows and Linux users. The technology, which is, as usual, not yet available yet for Macs, leverages Google's built-in PDF viewer and a "print to PDF" option.

Finally, Chrome's omnibox address bar and search box have been improved to more easily let users go back to pages they’ve visited before. Users need only type part of the Web page's address or title to find matching pages from their search history in the dropdown menu. While there had been some talk about the omnibox going away, clearly that's not the case in this iteration.

A major focus of the 5,200 improvements in the browser is bug fixes. Google and participating third-party experts found and plugged 30 of them, as the search engine paid out $17,000 to “bug squashers.” "Miaubiz" earned $7,500 for detecting various exploits, including $1,000 each for so-called "use after free" exploits.

Sergey Glazunov, a fixture among the bug hunters, netted $3,000 total. That included $1,500 apiece for finding a cross-origin script injection and cross-origin violation in base URI handling. See the complete list of found flaws and payouts in this blog post.

In other Chrome-related news, Google is now making it possible for developers in a host of countries to complete merchant account sign up and start adding their paid apps to the Chrome Web Store.

Google—which last month created the In App Payments API to enable developers to receive payments for applications they sell in the Chrome Web Store in 140 countries—also added the ability to target or exclude specific markets.

Specifically, Chrome Web Store developers can publish their apps only to the following regions: Argentina, Australia, Austria (new), Belgium (new), Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic (new), Denmark (new), Finland (new), France, Germany, Hong Kong (new), India, Indonesia (new), Israel (new), Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand (new), Norway (new), Philippines (new), Poland, Portugal, Russia (new), Singapore (new), Spain, Sweden (new), Switzerland (new) and the U.S. and U.K.

Gartner: Windows Phone 7 sales modest, but promising

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner. Though this represents only "modest sales," Nokia's support for the new smartphone OS will help it move forward in the future, the research firm adds.

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Microsofts Windows Phone sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter, according to new data from research firm Gartner. The smartphones, which represent Microsoft's attempt to take market share from the likes of Google Android and the Apple iPhone, originally made their debut in late 2010.

Windows Phone "devices launched at the end of 2010 failed to grow in consumer preference and CSPs [communication service providers] continued to focus on Android," reads Gartners May 19 research note. However, "in the long term, Nokias support will accelerate Windows Phones momentum."

Microsofts deal with Nokia will see Windows Phone ported onto the latters hardware. As Nokia begins to abandon its homegrown Symbian platform in favor of Microsofts offering, however, it could create an opening for the companies competitors to seize additional market share.

"This will precipitate a competitors rush to capture Symbians market share in the mid-tier," Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, wrote in the May 19 research note. Should Google or Apple succeed, it could prove an unwelcome consequence to an agreement designed to bolster Microsofts and Nokias fortunes in the space.


Worldwide smartphone sales to end users by operating system in 1Q11 (thousands of units)

Source: Gartner

Gartner's numbers (above) show that about 3.6 million phones with Microsoft operating systems were sold during the first quarter of 2011. This suggests that, ironically, Redmond's earlier Windows Mobile 6.5 is still more popular than Windows Phone 7, despite regularly being criticized as obsolete. (Windows Mobile has a large application base and many enterprise-friendly features, so it obviously still appeals to conservative customers.)

Meanwhile, Microsoft is developing a substantial Windows Phone 7.5 update, code-named "Mango," which will introduce a broad range of consumer and enterprise functionality, including the ability to search a server for email items no longer stored on the device, and share and save Office documents via Office 365 and Windows Live SkyDrive. "Mango" (below) will also include Bing Audio, which identifies any songs playing in the vicinity, and Bing Vision, an augmented-reality feature that lets a smartphones camera scan bar codes and QR Codes.

Windows Phone 7.5's conversation view (left) and Lync capabilities (right)
Source: Microsoft

Despite the challenges facing Windows Phone, the past quarter was a good one for smartphones as a whole. "Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year," Cozza wrote. "This share could have been higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011."

The current advantage lies with smartphones that offer a broad apps ecosystem. "Every time a user downloads a native app to their smartphone or puts their data into a platforms cloud service, they are committing to a particular ecosystem and reducing the chances of switching to a new platform," she added. "This is a clear advantage for the current stronger ecosystem partners Apple and Google."

Recent data from The Nielsen Company had six percent of consumers indicating they wanted a Windows Mobile/Windows Phone 7 smartphone as their next device, compared with 31 percent for Android, 30 percent for Apples iOS and 11 percent for Research In Motions BlackBerry.

Further information

The Gartner numbers cited in this story derive from the firm's "Market Share Analysis: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q11" report, available on Gartner's website for $1,295.

Microsoft and Intel spin Windows Embedded signage platform

Microsoft and Intel announced a "validated digital signage platform" that runs Windows Embedded Standard 7 on a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor. The Digital Signage Evaluation Kit (DSEK-10) is said to include DisplayPort, DVI-D, HDMI, and VGA video outputs, a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, and 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking.

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According to Microsoft and Intel, their new "validated digital signage platform" is designed to "address the market's need for a more streamlined, high-performance, and highly reliable solution." The Digital Signage Evalulation Kit, manufactured by Winmate, will apparently be one of the first devices to ship with Microsoft's Windows Embedded Standard 7.

Winmate says the DSEK-10 will be available at the end of this month. Software will include a preinstalled OS image optimized for digital signage usage, plus a recovery DVD, the company says.

Winmate's DSEK-10

According to Winmate, the DSEK-10 uses Intel's Core i5-520M, one of the embedded-specific CPUs launched by the chipmaker in January. The CPU has a base clock speed of 2.4GHz and Turbo Boost speed of 2.93GHz, dual cores, and a 35-Watt TDP. It's teamed here, as intended, with Intel's QM57 Express chipset.

Winmate says the DSEK-10 has 4GB of DDR3 memory, supplied via two SODIMM sockets, plus a 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drive of unspecified capacity. Intel-supplied components also provide gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking, the latter via a Mini PCI Express module (WiMax is orderable, the company says).

Ports on the Winmate DSEK-10
(Click to enlarge)

The DSEK-10's front panel (pictured above) includes audio jacks (mic in, line in, line out) and two USB 2.0 ports, says Winmate. The rear panel (also above), meanwhile, has two more USB 2.0 ports, the gigabit Ethernet port, and four video outputs: DisplayPort, DVI-D, HDMI, and VGA. (Winmate does not cite potential resolutions nor how many of these outputs may be used at once.)

Features and specifications listed by Winmate for the DSEK-10 include:

* Processor -- Intel Core i5 520-M clocked at 2.4GHz
* Chipset -- Intel QM57 Express
* Memory -- 4GB of DDR3 RAM via two SODIMM slots
* Storage -- 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drive
* Expansion -- Mini PCI slot (occupied by WLAN card)
* Networking:
o LAN -- 1 x gigabit Ethernet
o WLAN -- 802.11a/b/g/n
o WiMAX (optional)
* Other I/O:
o 4 x USB 2.0 (2 front, 2 rear)
o Audio -- mic in, line in, line out
o DisplayPort
o DVI-D
o HDMI
o VGA
* Power -- 12VDC via external AC adapter
* Operating temperature -- 32 to 104 deg. F (0 to 40 deg. C)
* Dimensions -- 7.24 x 4.92 x 1.96 inches (184 x 125 x 50mm)


The Intelligent Digital Signage Concept
(click to play)
Source: Intel

Further information

According to Intel and Microsoft, the DSEK-10 is being shown off at this week's Screenmedia Expo Europe 2010 show in London, scheduled for May 5 and May 6. Also being displayed is the Intelligent Digital Signage Concept (see video, above) that made its debut at a January convention in New York.

The Intelligent Digital Signage Concept features a seven-foot six-inch multitouch screen touted as having holographic glass. More information may be found on Intel's website, here.

Winmate did not release pricing for the DSEK-10, but said the device will be available later this month. More information may be found on the company's website, here.

Microsoft delivers Office 2010 SP1 upgrade

Adds Chrome support for online apps as Office 365 launches

Computerworld - Along with today's launch of Office 365, Microsoft also released the first service pack for its Office 2010 business productivity suite.

Microsoft had previously said it would ship Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) by the end of June.

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Office 2010 first reached most customers in June 2010.

As it usually does, Microsoft today made Office 2010 SP1 available only as a manual download, and will wait several months before adding it to Windows Update for automatic installation. Microsoft typically gives corporate customers a 30-day heads up before it starts to automatically serve Office service packs through its update services.

Office 2010 SP1 includes the usual roll-up of past security and hotfix patches, as well as a number of improvements and new features, particularly for its Office Web Applications (OWA), the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are key to Office 365, the service CEO Steve Ballmer today called "Office meets the cloud."

Among the new features in SP1 is official support for Chrome, a rival of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), for running OWA through SharePoint 2010 SP1, which debuted last week.

Microsoft added native support for IE9 for accessing both SharePoint and OWA through the company's newest browser, and printing in the online Word's editing mode and in the OWA version of PowerPoint.

The Outlook 2010 SP1 email client also supports Office 365, said Microsoft in a partial list of the service pack's improvements and additions.

A full change list can be downloaded from Microsoft's website (download Excel workbook)

Users can uninstall SP1 if necessary, a tactic Microsoft first offered in the application suite two years ago with Office 2007 SP2.

Office 2010 SP1 can be downloaded from Microsoft's site in either 32-bit or 64-bit versions. Alternately, users can launch Microsoft Update and manually select SP1.

Microsoft plans 22 patches for Windows, Office next week

Sole critical bulletin will fix flaws only in Vista and Windows 7
Computerworld - Microsoft today said it will issue four security updates next week, only one of which is pegged as critical, to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Visio 2003.

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Next Tuesday's patch lineup is smaller than June's, when Microsoft shipped 16 updates that fixed 34 flaws. The company typically delivers a lighter load in odd-numbered months. In May, for instance, Microsoft shipped just two updates -- the company calls them "bulletins" -- to patch only three vulnerabilities.

Of the four updates slated, one will be rated "critical," the highest threat label in Microsoft's four-step scoring system, while the other three will be marked "important," the second-most-dire ranking.

Next week's Patch Tuesday vulnerability count will be among the largest for the year, with its 22 bested only by April's 64 and June's 34, and tied with February's collection.

But the bugs-per-bulletins ratio is the highest for the year, observed Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, hinting of next week's releases.

"I think we'll see one bulletin with a very high number of vulnerabilities," said Storms. "We've seen that happen several times this year, most recently last month when it patched eight bugs in Excel with one update.

In April, Microsoft patched 30 vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel device driver with a single bulletin, a record for one update.

Storms said that the multi-bug update coming next Tuesday may fix numerous "elevation of privilege" vulnerabilities or a large number of "DDL load hijacking" flaws.

The former describes a bug attackers can use to gain complete administrative control of a system that they can already access, perhaps through an exploit of a separate vulnerability. DLL load hijacking, on the other hand, is the term used for attacks that rely on tricking applications or operating systems into loading a malicious file with the same name as a legitimate DLL, or dynamic link library.

Microsoft has issued more than a dozen DLL load hijacking updates since last November. In May, the Slovenian firm Acros Security announced that more DLL load hijacking updates were necessary to plug holes in Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). At the time, Microsoft said only that it was investigating the Acros report.

The sole critical update scheduled for next week affects Windows Vista and Windows 7, but does not impact the much older Windows XP or any of Microsoft's server operating systems.

Because Windows XP will be immune to the one or more vulnerabilities in that update, Storms said the bug had to be in code first used in Vista, then reused in Windows 7. He noted there are multiple candidates that fit the bill, including the security prompting component called UAC -- for "user account control" -- but said there wasn't sufficient information to take an educated guess.

Early Google+ can't touch Twitter for following breaking news

Having been in Norway just a couple of months ago, I have more than a passing interest in today's tragic news of a "giant" bomb blast in Oslo. During my lunch break, naturally, I went online to get more details.

On Twitter, both "Oslo" and "Norway" were trending; and I quickly found a curated list from the Washington Post of useful sources to follow about the Norway blast.

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Google Plus? Well, the current lack of search is crippling -- there's no way within Plus to find items mentioning the attacks. The search for people within Plus appears just looks through names, so "Oslo" finds people with the first name Oslo, not journalists or government officials based there. And, results from Sparks -- a way to follow topics within Google+ -- appear less useful than going straight to Google News.

Meanwhile, my stream of posts seems to have Google+ as the top news of the day most days, regardless of what's going on in the rest of the world.

I know that some of this has to do with the limited number of Google+ users -- not to mention the small number of people I've found to follow so far. Another issue has to do with Google+ still being in such early beta -- I find it hard to believe that at some point Google wouldn't add a more robust search capability.

Even if Plus had more users and better search, though, there's still the issue of how the posts display. When each item can include multiple paragraphs, several comments and sometimes fairly large images, I rarely see more than two items per screen. And that makes scanning rather tough. Without a more streamlined viewing option, Google+ simply isn't designed for making quick sense out of large amounts of data.

It's still unclear how Google+ will grow and evolve. As of today, though, it's hard for me to agree with those who argue that Google+ could take the place Twitter holds in the social networking arena.