Bouquets, brickbats greet MS on 25th birthday

Microsoft celebrated its 25th anniversary (Sept. 5) with a massive gathering of employees in a Seattle baseball stadium. The company also made a number of major future product announcements. At the Safeco Park stadium, Bill Gates and other high-level Microsoft officials told some 19,000 Microsoft workers and their families how they had made many sacrifices in their teenage years in order to develop new software.

Gates said he and friends Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer skipped sports and other fun classes and missed many parties in order to make time to learn to develop software. In a bit of a damper on Microsoft's celebration, the company was ordered by an Australian judge to pay a former Australian worker some $9 million in compensation and punitive damages for firing him via e-mail. Allegedly, Microsoft rushed the termination by e-mail in order to prevent the employee from exercising a large number of stock options at $5 per share. Meanwhile, among the major announcements Microsoft made this week were:

New Windows Whistler in 2001



The next version of Windows, the consumer version, will be released sometime in 2001 with advanced television features. The program, developed under the codename "Whistler" will not only let users watch television on their personal computers but also support interactive TV technology. "Initially, we see this as something that will probably only be used by real users and in some business applications, like a stock broker who needs to keep an eye on the news," said Microsoft TV platform director, marketing, Ed Graczyk. But he added that further down the road, as set-top cable boxes become more like computers, the Windows OS could power all entertainment and computing needs in a household. "I imagine something that's black and sleek and sits in your living room, instead of something beige and clunky and sits on your desk," Graczyk said. Microsoft plans to demonstrate a prototype of Whistler at an industry conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on September
8.

HPC 2000 debuts for hand helds



Microsoft also said it plans to release a new OS for miniature notebook computers. The HPC 2000 software powers the small notebook computer to do simple tasks such as note taking and inventory tracking. Microsoft says new HPC devices will be able to access more information from servers and the Internet. That could help boost demand, which so far has been lackluster, analysts say. Analysts said that while their will always be a market for small devices, it's not going to develop into a major source of revenue for Microsoft. Microsoft said Hewlett-Packard and NEC will demonstrate the HPC 2000 software on newly developed devices at the DemoMobile 2000 trade show in Pasadena, California, this week. Among the improvements offered by HPS 2000, the new software will allow users to access word-processing, spreadsheet and graphic-design functions. "These devices are just appropriate when you need a larger screen than a Palm and need to capture a lot of data," said Microsoft mobile devices division group product manager Dan Dedo. The market for handheld devices is expected to grow to about $2 billion a year from $764 million this year, according to International Data Corp."

New Web browser



Microsoft released the test version of its new Web browser which is designed to let its MSM online service compete more effectively with the world's top Internet service provider, America Online. The final release is expected this fall. The new MSN Explorer is optimized to work with high-speed Internet connections, such as cable modems and DSL lines. The software will be made available within the next week. The new browser features on-screen buttons that make it easier to get personalized content such as e-mail, photos and stock quotes that are now found on Microsoft Web
sites.

MSN, which charges for Internet access, has 3 million subscribers while America Online has more than 23 million. "Microsoft is trying to be a better AOL than AOL," said an analyst at Internet market researcher Giga Information Group. "The problem with attacking the entrenched market leader is that if you are not as good or only just as good, you won't get anywhere." The obstacle for MSN and any other contender is that AOL has had years to build features and content. For its part, Microsoft believes that many America Online users are unhappy with their service.