Microsoft's been trumpeting a pretty big number lately: 350 million, as in the number of Windows 7 licenses sold in the 18 months since that operating system hit the street.

Windows 7 was essentially a do-over of Windows Vista, which never quite managed to overcome its initial reputation as an unwieldy and bug-filled operating system. Microsoft took no chances with the rollout, accompanying it with a multimillion-dollar ad campaign and a wide variety of discounts.

But how is Windows 7 faring in the overall market? Some outside analytics firms offer some interesting statistics on that front. According to analytics firm Net Applications, Windows 7 holds 24.7 percent of the worldwide operating-system market, trailing Windows XP with 54.39 percent. Vista takes third in that reckoning, with 10.56 percent, followed by Mac OS X 10.6 with 3.50 percent.

Those numbers are broadly matched by StatCounter, which places Windows XP at 47.32 percent of the worldwide market, followed by Windows 7 with 20.6 percent, Windows Vista with 13.66 percent, and Mac OS X with 6.53 percent. (In the United States, Windows 7 at 30.84 percent seems on the verge of overcoming Windows XP at 32.17 percent.)

If anything, those numbers just go to show Windows XP's deep entrenchment among businesses and consumers, more than a decade after its release. In that time, numerous patches and add-ons have made XP a warhorse, one that Microsoft desperately wants people to abandon. Microsoft Download Center now offers a Windows XP End Of Support Countdown Gadget, which counts down the days until the operating system's official support ends in 2014. Meanwhile, Microsoft's latest browser, Internet Explorer 9, won't run on XP.

Eventually, Windows 7 will almost certainly overcome XP. Analysts seem to expect that businesses will engage in a more substantial tech refresh in coming years, once the economy stabilizes a little more, further propelling adoption of the operating system. And consumers, no matter how dedicated to XP, will eventually need to replace their aging laptops and desktops. If they want to stick with a PC, they'll need to purchase one running Windows 7.

In the meantime, though, rumors suggest Microsoft will produce the next version of Windows sometime in 2012. If that proves true, that could alter the game entirely. Would those still running XP at that point graduate directly to "Windows 8"? If Microsoft announces its next-generation OS too soon, will that curb Windows 7's healthy adoption rate? Time will tell, but for the moment, Microsoft can probably claim success for the Windows franchise--a good thing, considering that traditional platforms such as Windows and Office drive the lion's share of the company's revenue, despite all the attention focused on the cloud and smartphones.

Source: http://feeds.ziffdavisenterprise.com/~r/RSS/MicrosoftWatch/~3/-MXnTpmtPoo/windows_7_sales_scrub_vista_curse.html

AMERICA MOVIL AMKOR TECHNOLOGY

Welcome to the United States of the RIAA: A new bill that just flew through a U.S. Senate committee could make embedding copyrighted videos a crime, punishable by five years in the pokey.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/stream-youtube-video-go-directly-jail-765?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY SCIENTIFIC GAMES SANDISK SALESFORCE COM SAIC

SAP's HANA (high performance analytic appliance) in-memory computing engine went into general availability on Monday, giving the vendor a flashy new weapon against the likes of Oracle's Exadata data-processing machine and others in a highly competitive market.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/business-intelligence/saps-hana-in-memory-analytics-engine-now-available-768?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_

EARTHLINK DST SYSTEMS DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES DIODES INORATED DIEBOLD

If it weren't for a book's worth of confirmation text from Nokia, we'd swear the N950 was just as much a unicorn today as it's been every day prior. Even now, the developer version of the newly-announced N9 is coming to us sans imagery, with only a scant few hardware specifications to piece together something of an image in our minds. Thankfully, the mere mention of a "QWERTY keyboard" leads us to believe that it'll look an awful lot like a leak we spied back in August of 2010. Needless to say, this MeeGo-based device won't ever be widely available, but those interested in breaking out the code can look forward to a 4-inch TFT LCD (compared to the N9's far superior 3.9-inch AMOLED), an identical 854 x 480 screen resolution, a "different" 8 megapixel physical camera, a different location for said camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a slightly less sensitive magnetometer. It's also devoid of an NFC module, and the 1320mAh battery falls a bit short of the 1450mAh cell tucked with the downright delectable N9. Mum's the word on price and availability, but Nokia's not hesitating to remind us that the N950 units that do ship will be of "beta quality and come without any warranty or support whatsoever." Don't even front -- you're still buying one.

[Thanks, Mark and Alan]

Nokia's N950 developer MeeGo handset gets official: 4-inch display, QWERTY keyboard, same childlike dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink My Nokia Blog, The Nokia Blog  |  Nokia  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/nokias-n950-developer-meego-handset-gets-official-4-inch-displ/

MOTOROLA MOODY’S MISCROSOFT OFFICE MICROSOFT MICROSEMI

We all worry that there's some lurking security problem in our servers. We do what we can, patching, following best practices, keeping up-to-date with training and news. But wouldn't it be great to have an automated tool to check our work? That's the promise of vulnerability analyzers: products that detect problems in configuration, applications, and patches.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/do-you-know-where-your-security-holes-are-734?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_

APPLIED MATERIALS ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ARROW ELECTRONICS ASML HOLDING ASUSTEK COMPUTER

I know a lot of folks are struggling with what is going on between HP and Oracle, and I think I have an analogy that works. Imagine, if you will, what appears to be the perfect couple. They like similar things, and they each have skills that complement the other's. In other words, they are more than a couple. They are a team.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72685.html

EPICOR SOFTWARE EMULEX EMS TECHNOLOGIES EMC ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING

The studio created several new kinds of effects for its latest film and not just because it could. Pixar was really in search of ways to make its story as strong as possible.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20068109-52/new-technology-revs-up-pixars-cars-2/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GeekGestalt

LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LAWSON SOFTWARE LAND SOFTWARE LAM RESEARCH

This machine takes the guesswork out of preparing a shot of espresso.

Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=ad152d32f690ce525d8794205e8615eb

GRUPO IUSACELL HARRIS HCL TECHNOLOGIES HEWLETT-PACKARD HIGH TECH COMPUTER

Microsoft is currently locked in legal battle with i4i, a small Canadian company that has argued for years that Word 2003 and 2007 violated its patents related to custom XML. The two sides argued their case before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week, officially making it a Very Big Deal. More to the point, depending on who wins, it could radically affect patent law in this country.

During the April 18 arguments, Microsoft's legal counsel insisted that the current standard of proof for invalidating patents is too high, making it difficult for companies to repulse frivolous patent-infringement suits. "When the Patent Office didn't even consider the evidence, it makes absolutely no sense," Microsoft attorney Thomas Hungar told the court, according to an April 18 Bloomberg report.

If Microsoft triumphs, it could establish a precedent that makes it easier for big companies to knock down weak intellectual-property lawsuits. That would help slam the brakes on "patent trolling," an annoyance for many large tech companies. Those companies filing briefs in support of Microsoft range from Google to Cisco Systems.

But i4i is arguing that existing patent law is necessary for innovation.

"It is abundantly clear that the fundamental change in the law, which Microsoft seeks, would result in an enormous decrease in innovation," i4i Chairman Loudon Owen wrote in an April 18 statement. "Microsoft did not present either policy or legal reasons that would justify any changes to the law, particularly the sweeping change they now apparently seek."

So if i4i wins, it could potentially help smaller companies fight larger aggressors in open court. Those filing briefs in support of i4i include 3M, General Electric and Genentech.

"The bottom line: Tech vendors attacked by patent trolls are only asking for payback by reducing the standards in patent law," Ray Wang, principal analyst of Constellation Research, wrote to me in an April 19 email. "If Microsoft wins, it's a check and balance against patent trolls. If i4i wins, innovators who feel their rights have been trampled by large evil tech vendors will have protected their rights."

Microsoft's battle with i4i goes back to August 2009, when the federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas ordered that all copies of Word 2003 and 2007 be removed from retail channels within 90 days, after i4i argued that the word-processing software violated its key patents for custom XML. Microsoft's attorneys managed to impose a delay, only to have the U.S. Court of Appeals uphold the verdict four months later.

Microsoft also found itself hit with a nearly $300 million judgment, which if upheld could sting the company's bottom line a wee bit.

That upheld verdict came with the court order that all offending copies of Word be yanked from store shelves by early January 2010. Microsoft refused to give in, issuing a patch for Word it claimed would sidestep the alleged infringement, and asking for a review by all 11 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

That effort failed, and Microsoft appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. A decision should come by late June.

Source: http://feeds.ziffdavisenterprise.com/~r/RSS/MicrosoftWatch/~3/eoxmDKqZW0g/microsoft_vs_i4i_yes_this_is_important.html

VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA VIEWSONIC VERISIGN VERIFONE HOLDINGS

It's a mobile computing smorgasbord! Listen in as we discuss Apple's latest announcements, Samsung's new tablet, the first Chrome OS notebooks, and more.

Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=6b58bb887d354356e6353a3bbce9563f

ON SEMICONDUCTOR NVIDIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS NOVELLUS SYSTEMS NOVELL