This article was published on July 15, 2011

This week at Microsoft: Macs, Ballmer, and Windows 8


This week at Microsoft: Macs, Ballmer, and Windows 8

It is that lovely time of the week when we all begin to glance at the clock and count down, so let TNWmicrosoft soften the end of your work day with a roundup of the biggest Microsoft stories from the past seven days.

For this week’s question, pipe up in the comments as to what software you use to manage your music. Now, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and let’s get into the news.

Ballmer’s Keynote

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer gave a keynote address that included several important pieces of information, and also a few jokes. Perhaps most memorable in the speech was his mocking of Apple for selling roughly 5.7% as many Macs as PCs were sold in the year prior.

But Ballmer also revealed that Windows Phone 7 sales remain small, and that Windows 7 has sold 400 million copies. Also released during the address was the fact that Office 2010 had sold over 100 million licenses.

The message of the address was unification of the Microsoft empire, the joining together of all its products. Read all our notes on the speech here.

Windows 8

Windows 8 could mark a seminal moment for Microsoft: It may be the last operating system released by Microsoft to contain the ‘Windows’ tag.

New reports, tips, and rumors are pointing to the OS after Windows 8 as being a piece of software that will run on phones, PCs, tablets, and even the Xbox. In other words, Microsoft appears to be working towards a future in which it has a single OS product that runs on every possible device.

And because that would be such a monumental change, the company may (it is being circulated) change the name of the operating system to something other than Windows. Crazy? Perhaps. But Microsoft has shown in recent months that it is willing to take larger gambles. This might just be the next one.

Microsoft sued over ad campaign

Yes, this is not a story from the Onion, but something that is actually happening:

Microsoft’s year-old “Really?” Windows Phone adverts, which show various smartphone owners getting into trouble , have been made the focus of a lawsuit from novelty gift firm Cellrderm, which accuses the Redmond-based company and advertising agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky of copying its ad campaign.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, suggests Microsoft and Crispin Porter & Bogusky deliberately leveraged the idea to show a man drop his smartphone in a urinal and also to include an executive type who ignores sexual advances from his frustrated wife.

If the lawsuit has merit remains to be seen, but it certainly is a humorous situation. The ads that Microsoft has run that are implicated have been generally well received, so to see them go dark over this sort of complaint might be a moment to toss our hands into the air and just exclaim, ‘really?’

Is this Microsoft’s new social project?

Oops. Microsoft accidentally released the name “Tulalip” just the other day, showing the world that it has a social project up its sleeves that just might be coming to market.

What is it? According to the poorly worded screen that was captured: “With Tulalip, you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever.” The service has large Twitter and Facebook sign in options, so we doubt that it is out to replace those two companies, especially given how close Microsoft and Facebook are.

Hopefully more will leak in the next few weeks so that we can dig further into the product, but for now this is all we know:

That is all for now. More, as always, as it happens.

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