Microsoft

Microsoft has decided that its Office Accounting product just doesn't add up.

The software maker said on Friday that it plans next month to stop distributing the accounting product line, ending the latest in a series of efforts to take on market leader Intuit.

The accounting product line was launched in 2005 amid some fanfare, but failed to grab much market share and was later pulled from retail shelves in favor of online-only sales.

"We continually evaluate our business strategies to make sure we're working to meet the needs of customers, partners and shareholders," Microsoft said on its Web site. "With that in mind, we have determined that existing free templates within Office used with Excel was a better option for small businesses, and the Microsoft Dynamics ERP products were appropriate for mid-range organizations."

The software maker said it will stop distributing its free Office Accounting Express as well as all of the paid Office Accounting product in the United States and United Kingdom.

Microsoft has been paring back a number of the efforts at the periphery of its product line, including mainstays such as Microsoft Money, which had long been second fiddle to Intuit's Quicken. The company has also discontinued its Windows Live OneCare security software.

Microsoft plans to continue supporting the Office Accounting product, although a number of related services are ending.

"Online sales from eBay and credit profile from Equifax will no longer be available after December 15, 2009," Microsoft said. "However, your customers will still be able to pay e-mailed invoices directly through PayPal. In addition, credit card processing services and the ability to order compatible checks and forms will still be available."

Those who have bought the product in the last 30 days can return it for a refund.

Microsoft said on Monday that it will open up the data format behind its Outlook program.

In a blog posting, Microsoft group manager Paul Lorimer said the company is working to publish the specifications behind Outlook's .pst files.

"Data portability has become an increasing need for our customers and partners as more information is stored and shared in digital formats," Lorimer wrote. "One scenario that has come up recently is how to further improve platform-independent access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other data generated by Microsoft Outlook."

The move, he said, will "allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice."

Lorimer said the documentation effort is still in its early stages. "We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful."

Once released, Lorimer said Microsoft will offer it "under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way."

Microsoft on Monday is announcing that it will release in November a public test version of Office 2010.

The software maker released a limited technology preview of the software in July and plans to release the final version next year. It also started testing of the browser-based "Office Web Apps" in September.

Microsoft, which is making the announcement at its SharePoint conference, is also detailing some of the features of the next version of its portal software, which will also enter beta next month.

The new version, SharePoint 2010, includes Office's Ribbon user interface as well as enhanced support for video, audio and Silverlight. Programmers will also be able develop Sharepointl sites using the next version of the company's Visual Studio, which is going into a second beta this week.

SharePoint is an important product for Microsoft as it is one of the company's fastest growing large businesses. Last year it brought in more than $1.3 billion in revenue, up 20 percent from the prior year.

"SharePoint 2010 is the biggest and most important release of SharePoint to date," CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "When paired with Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 will transform efficiency by connecting workers across a single collaboration platform for business."

In addition to the bare-bones Office 2010 Starter that will come bundled on many new PCs, starting next year, Microsoft looks to have another low-cost option up its sleeve.

As part of the announcement of Office Starter on Thursday, Microsoft said consumers will be able to go to retailers and get a "product key card" with a code to upgrade to a full version of Office, such as the Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional versions.

(Credit: Microsoft)

If you look closely at the image for the Office Home and Student card, it says "for one preloaded PC only." Now, typically, Office Home and Student is licensed for up to three PCs. That means that this card, which is good for only one PC, has the potential to be cheaper than the standard retail package, which includes a DVD copy and is good for three computers.

Microsoft isn't talking licensing details yet for Home and Student, but I'm told by those in the know that my logic is correct. Office 2010, in all its versions, is set to debut next year, with a beta test version of the product due later this year.

The software maker is clearly looking for as many ways as possible to put the latest version of Office in the hands of those willing to be legitimate users. In addition to the client-based Office 2010 versions, Microsoft also plans its Office Web Applications, browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Those products will be free and ad-supported for consumers, offered as part of Windows Live.

The other interesting part of Thursday's announcement is the "click to run" download method, which allows users to download Office over the Web but quickly get started before all the code has run. That method uses application virtualization. A side benefit is that such an installation can constantly be checking for updates and keeping itself current.

Although Vice President Takeshi Numoto told CNET yesterday that Microsoft had nothing new to announce on the subscription front, the click-to-run approach would seem an excellent technology to use to power a subscription version of Office (or any other Microsoft product, for that matter).

There was a subscription version of Office 2007, dubbed Equitpt, but that product also came bundled with Windows Live OneCare and was scrapped, as Microsoft discontinued OneCare.

Microsoft has spent years looking for new ways to sell Office, exploring everything from ad-funded software to prepaid cards good for a certain number of months of Office use.

Microsoft said Thursday that it has finalized the code for Exchange 2010, the next version of its e-mail and communications server.

Exchange 2010, which has been ahead of the rest of the Office family in development, becomes the first of the Office 2010 wave of products to be finished.

"Our senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to our early adopters for one final look before its public release.," Microsoft said in a blog posting.

The product will become broadly available in November, Microsoft, said with a launch planned for the TechEd Europe conference, which runs Nov. 9-13 in Berlin. Other parts of Office 2010, such as the new versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, are not due until next year, with a beta slated for later in 2009.

Among the features in the next Exchange is an ability to ignore a particular e-mail conversation, as well as "MailTips," which offers warnings when one might be about to commit an e-mail faux pas.

Microsoft developed Exchange 2010 as a service first, using it to power its Live@edu mail service and then worked to create the server version of the software--a reversal of the past way Exchange and other products have been created.

Aiming to turn more new PC buyers into Office users, Microsoft has announced plans for several new ways to obtain the software, including an ad-supported "Starter" edition that can come loaded on new PCs.

In a blog posting Thursday, Microsoft said the starter version of Office will have limited features and include only Excel and Word. The starter version will be part of the Office 2010 family, due out next year, and will only be available on new PCs.

"Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box," Microsoft said, adding that it can be upgraded to one of several full versions of Office with a new upgrade card to be sold at retail stores.

The product is a replacement for Microsoft Works, which was Microsoft's low-cost option for PC makers that wanted to include basic productivity software. Microsoft had also quietly tinkered with a free, ad-supported version of Works in recent years.

Office Starter, as opposed to Works, will have full file compatibility with Office as well as features like the 'Ribbon' user interface.

"It really is a replacement for Works," Microsoft corporate vice president Takeshi Numoto said in an interview on Thursday. "It is not a mere renaming of Works. It is an Office product."

Microsoft is trying several ideas to better compete with free rivals such as Google Docs. With Office 2010, Microsoft will also offer a free, ad-supported version of Office that runs in a Web browser. That product, which went into a technology preview last month, requires connection to the Internet at all times.

"It's a way for us to reach customers who may have not experienced Office before, (for them) to get a taste of it," Numoto said.

For years now, Microsoft has grappled with new ways of selling Office, which, along with Windows, is one of the company's two main profit engines. Although Office boasts half a billion users, there are lots of folks that use pirated copies of the software or don't have Office at all.

Several years back, as part of a ThinkWeek paper seen by CNET News, Microsoft workers recommend that the company scrap Works in favor of an ad-supported product, saying Microsoft only got a couple dollars of revenue per PC when Works was included.

Numoto would not go into financial details for Office Starter, but did say that it is a "royalty-bearing" product for Microsoft, as Works was. In the past, though, PC makers have had an opportunity to earn back money if customers upgrade from a trial version of Office to the full version. Numoto wouldn't detail how that might work with Office Starter.

Microsoft is also trying out a new method for those that already have a PC to try out Office 2010, once it is available. Called "Click to Run," it brings the notion of streaming to software. Instead of waiting for the whole product to download, users can click a button and start using the software as soon as some of the basics are downloaded. The rest of the product then gets downloaded over time.

Microsoft has already seen the Web increase as a means for getting its software. Numoto said that in the last fiscal year some 23 million downloads of the Office trial, nearly double the number from a year earlier.

Still, he said, downloading a big file means a long wait. "We know we could do a lot better to streamline that experience," he said.

An additional benefit of the Click to Run installation is that it is done through application virtualization. That allows the code, even though it is still being run locally, to run side-by-side with an existing version of Office. That would allow, for example, a user to run a trial version of Office 2010, without getting rid of their existing Office installation.

A federal court on Tuesday reversed an earlier ruling that Microsoft's product activation technology infringed on another company's patent, overturning a $388 million verdict in the case.

In a ruling on Tuesday, the court vacated the earlier decision and decided the case in Microsoft's favor.

"We are pleased that the court has vacated the jury verdict and entered judgment in favor of Microsoft," Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a statement.

Tuesday's ruling is the latest twist in a case that has had plenty of them. Microsoft initially won a summary judgment ruling, which would have ended the case in its favor, but Uniloc appealed that ruling and a federal appeals court last year ruled that the case needed to go to trial with regard to two counts.

The victory in the Uniloc case comes as Microsoft is awaiting the result of an appeal in another patent case in which the custom XML feature in recent versions of Word was found to infringe on patents held by Canada's I4i. If it fails in its appeal bid, Microsoft faces damages of more than $200 million in that case as well as an injunction that would halt sales of word with the infringing feature.

Like many who spend their days trapped inside a cubicle, Microsoft Office probably dreams of living a more exciting life. Perhaps, when it was just a beta, it thought maybe it would grow up to be a policeman.

Well, in "Crush," a new crime novel, the mundane piece of software gets its chance. Office, or at least one key Office document, ends up playing a central role in the pursuit of a serial killer.

Without giving away too much of the plot, it's fair to say that a certain PowerPoint file becomes a key piece of evidence, with a worker at Microsoft finding central clues within the document's metadata.

"Technology is such a part of my life," the book's author, Alan Jacobson, said in an interview. "It's part of the fabric of my life, so invariably it spills into my writing."

(Credit: Alan Jacobson)

Crush, which went on sale this week, is the follow-up to "The 7th Victim," another book where technology plays an important role. Both feature as the heroine Karen Vail, an FBI profiler who seems to have a knack for attracting murders.

Gadgetry infuses the pages of Crush. While Office has the starring role, a number of products make cameos, including Windows Live, Surface, Outlook and even RoundTable, which Microsoft handed off last year to Polycom. In fact, there were so many Microsoft products, I thought perhaps it was some sort of paid placement.

Jacobson assured me that he's just a fan of Microsoft, whose products he has used for the past 23 years, ever since switching from a Mac Plus to a PC when he opened his chiropractic practice. From then on, he said, he has purchased every version of Word and Office, along with many other of the company's products.

"I really appreciate what Microsoft does," Jacobson said. "They create incredibly complex software that is incredibly easy to use."

I pointed out that it is usually Apple, and not Microsoft, that earns that kind of praise. Jacobson said he is aware but puzzled by that fact. "I am surprised at the animosity that exists on the blogs (toward Microsoft). They write a lot of nasty things."

While nearly all the tech in the book is from Redmond, the main detective does spend lots of time on her BlackBerry (it seems Windows Mobile has a tough time getting market share in the fictional world too).

The Microsoft worker who helps Karen Vail is not a fictional character but rather Tomas Palmer, a real-life program manager in Microsoft's security unit. Jacobson met Palmer through an executive at Microsoft. In part to thank him for his technical assistance, Jacobson decided to have Palmer play a part in the book.

Jacobson said it makes sense that his characters turn to technology for help.

"I think that way, so some of them think that way too," said Jacobson, who worked for years as a chiropractor before finding a new way to tingle spines.

Microsoft has several tools for real-life law enforcement, including COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor), a USB key that can be used by cops to find information stored in the cache of a suspect's computer.

Jacobson said that he was introduced to a Microsoft executive during a Seattle stop on his last book tour.

"I asked if I could get a tour of the campus," Jacobson said. The executive agreed and Jacobson flew back to Seattle last December and got an in-depth look at some of the latest products Microsoft is working on.

"It was fascinating," he said. "I kept thinking Microsoft has such great technology and nobody knows about it."

A federal appeals court on Wednesday heard arguments over whether to uphold an injunction that would ban sales of Microsoft Word in its current form.

Microsoft is appealing a jury's ruling that a custom XML feature in recent versions of Word infringes on a patent held by I4i, a Canadian software company. The jury ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million, while a judge raised that amount and also issued the injunction, although it has been temporarily put on hold while Microsoft's appeal is being heard.

The hearing before a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., lasted about 90 minutes, with lawyers from both sides making their case.

"At today's hearing we emphasized three points for why a reverse judgment or retrial is warranted: courts need to construct claims properly, the patent is not valid and we do not infringe it, and common sense can't be abandoned when it comes to damages calculation," Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in an e-mailed statement. "We are pleased with how the hearing proceeded and we look forward to the Court's ruling.

For its part, I4i said Microsoft's arguments are the same ones that have been unsuccessful in prior hearings.

"The good thing is there was nothing surprising," I4i Chairman Loudon Owen said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "It was the same thing that failed at trial."

A ruling from the appeals court is expected soon, but no specific time frame was given by the court on Wednesday. I4i executives expressed hope that the ruling will come soon, but such decisions can often take two to four months, or even longer in some cases.

Should Microsoft lose its appeal, the software maker could also pursue a technical workaround that allows the custom XML function to work in a different way that doesn't infringe on I4i's patent, remove that feature from Word, or pursue a settlement.

Although XML technology may seem arcane, Owen said it is important technology and he said I4i is suffering each day that there is no injunction because the market is growing so quickly.

"It's not a 'would-like-to-have' (technology)," Owen said. "We believe it is a must-have going forward. This is infrastructure so that commerce and government can function and solves some of the problems that are seemingly insurmountable in managing data today."