Robert J. Mullins

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft launched the new Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system Oct. 29 with a heavy emphasis on the appeal of Windows smartphones to consumers, as it seeks to finally gain traction in the smartphone market against strong OS competitors Google Android and Apple’s iOS. Windows Phone 8 will run on a number […]

Microsoft Shows It Can Get Buyers to Line Up, Too Shoppers line up outside the Microsoft Store at Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in Santa Clara, Calif., Oct. 26 to buy the Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows 8, which also went on sale the same day. Apple has been known for creating such demand for […]

The expectations game is going to be restarted Oct. 29 when Microsoft unveils the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system and handset makers begin sales of devices preinstalled with the mobile operating system. Windows Phone sales have been weak and they didn’t get much of a bounce when Microsoft partnered with Nokia to make WP […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said here Oct. 25 that the reason the wireless carrier reported a net loss of subscribers in the third quarter is that it is moving subscribers off the soon-to-be-shutdown Nextel network, but it is successfully moving many of them to Sprint’s. Hesse sought to provide context to […]

A new forecast out from research firm Gartner indicates that Microsoft can expect that Windows will be virtually tied with Google Android in the total device market for smartphones, tablets and PCs by 2016. Furthermore, while Microsoft will record strong sales gains in the tablet computer market, it will still be a distant third-place finisher […]

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – Mobile application developers who’ve concentrated most of their efforts on creating applications to run on Apple iPads, iPhones and various Google Android OS devices are now starting to shift their attention to Windows Phone 8 with the mobile operating system due to officially premiere Oct. 29. Developers interviewed at the Sprint […]

Microsoft is going to make the latest version of its Dynamics AX 2012 enterprise resource planning (ERP) product available Dec. 1 for managing large-scale global companies. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Release 2 offers multiple new ERP features for companies in four key sectors, including manufacturing, retail, the public sector and professional services. “These very different […]

Cisco Systems has added support for the open source Hadoop big data framework in the latest version of its Tidal Enterprise Scheduler, which is software that automates some of the processes involved in operating a big data analytics system. Cisco and other vendors made product announcements at a Hadoop conference Oct. 23-25 in New York. […]

Microsoft has introduced new terms of service for its free online services such as email, instant messaging and search that broadens its rights to mine data across different platforms. The terms of service, made public Oct. 19, allow Microsoft to collect user data from one service, such as Windows Live Messenger, and use it to […]

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that the company she has been piloting since July is doing a strategic reassessment, including fixing its broken mobile strategy, and is progressing to a brighter future as a reinvigorated consumer Internet company. Mayer says her “top priority” is to rebuild Yahoo’s mobile strategy in which the company has “underinvested” […]