Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

Other World Computing

TechRestore

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Album Of The Year

    • 10 out of 10
    • Brother Love
    • Killer grooves, catchy riffs, edgy vocals with oh-so-just-right layered harmonies, and a drive that will move even YOU out of your chair, Brother Love's initial release is what rock and roll should be
  • With Teeth

    • 4 out of 10
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • In the sprawling post-A&R rock and roll world, there are two camps: the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles are the artists that like to explore, evolve, and change styles. The Stones are the artis

  • Physical Graffiti

    • 10 out of 10
    • Led Zeppelin
    • This album bears every flavor of genius from the five records that came before. It is, I believe, the band's finest. With Physical Graffiti, Zep came raging back to their musical home territory -- har
  • So Jealous

    • 8 out of 10
    • Tegan and Sara
    • So Jealous is the third album from these sisters, and easily the one to single out for an introduction to their music. Some people may not get on board with their vocal styles, which are slightly

  • Spanks for the Memories

    • 8 out of 10
    • Asylum Street Spankers
    • The Asylum Street Spankers are...well...The Spankers. Hailing from Austin, where I saw them live dozens of times, the band played entirely acousti

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

News

Fortune: Microsoft Looks to Cash in on the iPhone

Microsoft is hardly ignoring the iPhone, according to Fortune on Tuesday. The Microsoft Mac Business Unit (MacBU) has the iPhone SDK and is eager to find out of there are business opportunities for Microsoft to develop iPhone software.

"It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," said Tom Gibbons, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Specialized Devices and Applications Group. "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now."

Of course, while Microsoft and Apple are rivals in many areas, the MacBU in Mountain View, Calif has been delivering software for Macs for over a decade. The MacBU exists because it makes good money for Microsoft, to the tune of US$350M in revenue per year with a profit estimated at $200M. That group has a lot of experience writing Mac software, so it was natural for them to explore the iPhone SDK.

"We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something," Mr. Gibbons said. "The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We’re still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It’s just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like, now we’ll really get our head wrapped around that."

In addition, another Microsoft group, TellMe, sees opportunity in voice recognition software, an area that Microsoft has spent a lot of R&D dollars. "If the SDK supports these things," said Mike McCue, the TellMe general manager, "we’re absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can..."

That Microsoft is looking to make money from the iPhone may seem ironic, but making money from Apple hardware is merely something the MacBU has been doing for a very long time.

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.