After Microsoft on Thursday announced record revenue of $17.37 billion, analysts quickly voiced concerns over the news that revenue from the company's Windows division declined 2 percent in fiscal 2011.
Claiming that tablets should be considered personal computers rather than new age mobile devices, Microsoft on Tuesday again dashed hopes of tablets running the company's new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 OS.
Gartner lowered its forecast Wednesday for global PC growth in 2011 as demand for netbooks continues to slump and Apple's iPad causes disruption, while Microsoft is reportedly considering launching its own brand of Windows 8 tablet PCs next year.
A group of pranksters disguised themselves as construction workers on Saturday in order to post a Windows logo onto the facade of a future Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany.
Microsoft has provided a look at how it plans to bring Windows to more mobile devices in the future, leveraging ARM processors and using HTML5 as the basis of a new app platform.
After Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared to confirm earlier this week that the next generation of Windows will arrive next year, a spokesperson has clarified the comments as "a misstatement."
Speaking at a developer forum in Tokyo, Japan on Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed plans for a 2012 launch of the "next generation of Windows systems," which will include Windows 8 slates and tablets.
Apple's dramatic growth in hardware sales has reversed the longstanding notion that software licensing is the best way to make money in the tech industry.
Slowing shipments of PCs have prompted some analysts to revise their 2011 PC shipment estimates downward over concerns that Apple's iPad is eating into sales of PCs.
In a marked shift from his former belief that sales of the iPhone would dry up after two years, Roger McNamee, a prominent venture capitalist who has invested heavily in Palm and Facebook, said in an interview that Apple will likely lead a 10-year technology growth cycle with the continued success of the iPad and its App Store ecosystem.
An early build of Windows 8 suggests that Microsoft may transition the next version of Windows to a cross-platform OS scalable across a variety of devices in hopes of competing with Apple's iOS platform, according to new reports.
The founder of Acer, the second largest PC maker globally, has acknowledged that the company must overhaul its operations to focus on profit margins rather than market share in reaction to the success of Apple.
Almost lost at the end of its more than two hour long webOS event was the news that HP plans to apply its webOS experience on new PCs it sells, initially augmenting rather than replacing Windows in a bid to greatly expand the new environment's installed base.
Without providing a price or release date, Dell has begun showing a non-working prototype representing a 10 inch tablet running Windows 7.
Bolstered by record sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad, chip designer ARM Holdings announced its highest ever annual revenue and earnings Tuesday.
Cybermart, a retail subsidiary of Apple partner Foxconn, is planning an aggressive expansion in Greater China after winning distribution rights for Apple products, according to a new report. Samsung was unable to capitalize on its iPad and iPhone challengers, posting its lowest quarterly profit in six quarters. Finally, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company was "looking into" a Mac App Store version of its Office productivity suite.
After numerous analysts had predicted weakened income for Microsoft, the Windows maker surprised Wall Street Thursday by posting a quarterly profit of $6.63 billion, enough to stay ahead of Apple on earnings for the time being.
Microsoft is expected to report lower profits than last year as PC market growth stalls, making it almost certain that Apple's latest $6 billion earnings record will exceed Microsoft's for the first time since 1990.
In addressing potential competitors of Apple's iPad, Tim Cook said he has "no concerns" about the the tablets being shown running Microsoft's Windows and Google's Android platform, specifically calling out existing Android offerings as "bizarre" while dismissing future models as vapor.
Intel and NVIDIA have announced a six-year $1.5 billion cross-licensing agreement that resolves a lengthy patent dispute between the two companies and could lead to close integration of NVIDIA GPUs with Intel's processors.
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Josh Ong
Blake Steven
Daniel Eran Dilger
