Nokia, Skype, ARM: Microsoft's big year in review
Why 2011 is critical for 2012 at Redmond
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MicroBite 2011 saw Microsoft place a some big bets to break into new markets: putting Windows on ARM to challenge the iPad, becoming a web telco with the record-breaking $8.5bn purchase of Skype, and an exclusive deal with handset manufacturer Nokia to deliver smart phones using nothing but Windows Phone.
Some choices seemed logical: ARM dominates smartphones and reckons it can clean up in tablets. Others, less so: spending so much for loss-making Skype in a no-bid contest with no clear explanation of how Microsoft thinks it can make its money back.
Another big bet that was placed: Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7, was unveiled. Windows 8 introduces a tablet-friendly user interface for use on tablets but also presents Microsoft with a genuine dilemma: how to introduce this brand-new way of building and interacting with Windows without losing existing customers and developers using "old" Windows.
Meanwhile, mumblings of discontent with the performance of Steve Ballmer finally broke out into the open.
If 2011 was a year of big bets, 2012 will be critical in seeing whether these bets pay off.
Join All-About-Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley and The Reg's software editor Gavin Clarke in their look back at the highlights of Microsoft's year and what it means for the next 12 months. You can listen using our player below, or download the MP3 or Ogg. ®
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COMMENTS
Risk management
@David Shaw, you bought a WP7 device to avoid bugs & exploits?
That's like moving to live in a petrol refinery because the curtains in your house aren't flame-retardant.
Legally compliant? OK, where's the ETSI/FCC certification?
I call "TROLL!"
Like to see the test results that You submitted.
Anechoic chamber measurements for emissions?? They're hard to find, let alone book in a week.
Coding for 2x channel-DSP's and 4x Baseband DSP's?? Hopping synthesisers for both receive and transmit?? testing - took a day per prototype, then modify accordingly, then test again. Some of us slept on the floor of the lab. (myself included) 24/7 to get the testing done. Some hardened souls could work 48 hours without other than a toilet break. Didn't have time, sometimes to even eat. I could do 36 hours before passing out from fatigue was a definite danger.
Christ, it took a team of 50 over 2 years to do this. I know, I was in the team.
Sorry squire, the only way you could've possibly done this is to nick transceiver, BBM, TRUE, BCF, etc. from a working cabinet. Then nip over to Nethawk in Oulu, Finland , and nick a BTS/TCSM simulator.
In short, you're talking slightly muffled. Trousers have that effect.
BOLLOCKS!!!!
Merry trolling!
have a merry xmas!
I agree that a few years ago a BTS was a work of art, now, with the resources of a research centre (yes, including an idle anechoic chamber that we can fit a helicopter in) , with a cupboard filled with USRP software defined radios, 14 at the last count, the ones with the standard crappy 64MHz xtal - (we have the 52MHz better xtal on order )
Seriously, one of our USRP chassis ran OpenBTS on GNURadio perfectly with the stock 64MHz. The hardest part of the setup, funnily, was to find a connector for the US power supply.
DIY stuff here <http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/OpenBTS>
SOTA for GSM is now $1k h/w and 2 days typing.
The USRP presents a GSM air interface to standard GSM handsets and uses a software PBX (Asterisk) to connect calls. OpenBTS consists of a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (plus we used an RFX900 transceiver daughterboard) connected on a USB port of a Debian (BackTrack5) Linux box running Asterisk, GnuRadio and OpenBTS.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
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Data control in the cloud
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
