microsoft

Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer has announced plans to leave the Redmond, Washington-based firm in the next twelve months. It's a monumental change for a firm going through a difficult period in its history. Ballmer, who is 57 years ... old and originally joined Microsoft in 1980, says his firm has already appointed a special committee to interview candidates for the position. Microsoft co-founder and current chairman Bill Gates is said to be on that special committee. Dramatic End to a Roller Coaster Career Ballmer's tenure as CEO has been a tumultuous one. Ballmer was named CEO ... (view more)

A new study has found that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser is more error-prone than every one of its major competitors. But there is some good news for Microsoft and avid IE users. The study was carried out by software development company ... Sauce Labs, which offers developers an automated testing system designed to save time and hassle. Its recent browser study was no small operation: Sauce Labs used 55 million tests to determine an accurate error rate for the world's most popular web browsers and applications. Mozilla's Firefox the Browser to Beat Finishing first in the study was ... (view more)

Microsoft's August Patch Tuesday is approaching and once again the company has plans to fix serious security vulnerabilities affecting its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. This month's Patch Tuesday includes eight security updates -- that's one ... more update than last month . However, August's Patch Tuesday includes just three security updates marked "critical," Microsoft's highest security rating. Last month there were seven of these updates. Two of this month's critical updates are attracting plenty of media attention. All Versions of Internet Explorer Vulnerable The first affects every ... (view more)

A new report says Microsoft's own digital distribution center, the Windows Store, contains roughly half of the world's most popular applications. It's more bad news for Microsoft, which continues its struggle to lure mobile consumers away from the ... iOS and Android platforms. The study was conducted by Nick Landry, a product manager and Microsoft expert at New Jersey development firm Infragistics. Landry, whose company builds user interface development tools, based his "must-have" list on the top 100 iOS apps. He then went to the Google Play and Windows Store digital outlets to see how many of ... (view more)

With the back-to-school shopping season upon us, Microsoft is dropping the price of its Surface Pro tablet computer. The $100 price drop is less substantial than the $150 the firm knocked off its Surface RT tablet, but it should arouse interest in a ... device that has received better reviews than its cheaper counterpart. The Surface Pro launched early this year and several months after the Surface RT. Unlike the Surface RT, which runs Windows RT, the Surface Pro runs a full-blown version of Windows 8. That means Surface Pro users -- unlike their Surface RT counterparts -- can download apps from ... (view more)

Microsoft SkyDrive is no more. However, it's not a case of Microsoft phasing out its popular cloud storage service -- instead, the firm is simply being forced to rename it after losing a trademark case. British Sky Broadcasting (or BSkyB, as it's ... often called) originally filed suit against Microsoft in 2011. It argued that the "Sky" portion of its own name could easily be confused with Microsoft's SkyDrive . Therefore, BSkyB said Microsoft had infringed on its trademark. Microsoft fought the matter in the English High Court but lost the case in June 2013. Now, an appeal by the Redmond, ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed it generated $853 million in revenue selling its Surface tablet computer. Embarrassingly, that's less than the amount it recently wrote off in stock it no longer expects to sell at full price. The revelations come just days ... after company chief executive officer Steve Ballmer reportedly told staff "we built a few more [Surface] devices than we could sell." That appears to be an understatement, to say the least. This is the first time Microsoft has publicly discussed Surface sales in any detail. The information was made available through a filing with the Securities and ... (view more)

PC manufacturer Asus appears to be moving away from plans to build devices running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, a slimmed-down version of Windows 8. According to Asus Chairman Jonney Shih, the firm is focusing on building tablet ... computers employing the Windows 8.1 platform. In discussing consumers' reaction to Windows RT tablet PCs, Shih noted that "the result is not very promising." Asus is only the most recent PC manufacturer to back away from Windows RT . Lenovo has also decided to cancel all plans for future Windows RT tablets, and that has meant abandoning the firm's IdeaPad ... (view more)

According to sources within Microsoft, the company's top executives are not happy with sales of devices running the firm's Windows 8 operating system. Recently, chief executive officer Steve Ballmer was very blunt in discussing problems affecting ... the Surface tablet computer. Two technology blogs -- The Verge and Neowin -- say they've learned from sources who attended a recent internal town hall event that Microsoft's top brass is very upset with sales of Windows 8-based devices. "We built a few more devices than we could sell," Ballmer reportedly said in reference to the Surface RT tablet ... (view more)

Microsoft's quarterly earnings report has resulted in the company's shares plummeting by 10 per cent. Investors appear to have been spooked by fourth quarter results that revealed a $900 million loss on the company's Surface tablet computer. Last ... week Microsoft slashed the price of its Surface RT tablet by $150, dropping that price from $499 to $349. Recent reports have suggested the firm has sold only a tiny portion of the devices it expected to sell, forcing it to take a loss in order to clear out existing stock. For Microsoft, Mobile Market A Tough Nut to Crack The stock plunge is the ... (view more)