April 20 2002 News

Technical, Business and Product News from the Modern Computer World... Updated Once Per Month

Internal Windows Update Server Next Month
Microsoft will be releasing a Corporate Windows Update 'Server' next month. The 'server' will allow for windows domain machines to have their Windows Update directed to your corporate network. As the administrator you will be able to download and test patches then 'post' them on your internal Windows Update site.

Reuters - Microsoft Slashes European Xbox Prices. U.S. Next?
By Ben Berkowitz and Scott Hillis
LOS ANGELES/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. on Thursday slashed the price of its Xbox (news - web sites) video game console in Europe and Australia and sharply pared its forecast for early sales of the machine, conceding it has struggled after a high-voltage launch.

U.S. game publishers cheered the European price cut, and analysts said it was evidence that Microsoft would likely cut the price of the Xbox in the United States later this year in order to gain ground on archrival and market-leader Sony Corp (news - web sites).

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer John Connors said Microsoft expected to ship 3.5 million to 4 million units by the end of June, down as much as 40 percent lower than its prior forecast of 4.5 million to 6 million units.

By the end of fiscal 2003, the company expects the console's total worldwide installed base to be about 9 million to 11 million units, he said.

"This reflects the ongoing weakness in Japan and accounts for many weeks of sales opportunities lost in Europe while we were at the higher price," Connors said.

Earlier in the day, Microsoft cut the Xbox's price tag for continental Europe by 38 percent to 299 euros ($266) and cut the price for Great Britain by 34 percent to 199 pounds ($288), and said it would offer a gift bundle for people who bought the console at the old price.

It also announced a price cut of almost 39 percent in Australia to A$399 ($215), with a gift pack for earlier buyers.

The new European prices, which Microsoft said were coming in sooner than it originally planned, will now match those of Sony Corp's best-selling PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console in Europe and will be closer to Nintendo (news - web sites)'s forthcoming GameCube console, which is still a bit cheaper.

It is the first price cut for Xbox, which launched in the U.S. on Nov. 15, in Japan on Feb. 22 and in Europe and Australia on Mar. 14. The company has given no further details of planned price cuts outside Europe.

However, analysts and observers said they expected at least one Xbox price cut in the U.S. this year, if not two, saying Microsoft may end up cutting its U.S. price before Sony, which has sold for $299 in the U.S. since PS2's Nov. 2000 launch.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Reuters he expects a cut from $299 to $249 in May and another to $199 in September...

BetaNews - Longhorn Upgraded & Pushed to 2004, .NET Server to Debut 2003
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
While this week's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference has been host to exciting new product announcements and upcoming technologies, Microsoft executives delivered disappointing news to Windows enthusiasts. In his keynote address, group vice president Jim Allchin disclosed that Longhorn, the next major version of Windows originally scheduled for 2003, would not ship before 2004. Windows .NET Server will not meet its timeline either, due in part to delays Microsoft attributes to the massive security review that took place in February.

What was once slated to be a relatively minor update to Windows XP, Longhorn will instead represent quite a significant jump from its predecessor. Microsoft has been working hard to perfect a completely new file system based on Yukon, the next release of SQL Server. Longhorn will also sport next generation three dimensional graphics with DirectX 9, enabling the company to potentially deliver a completely new 3-D user interface.

"We want to make it a very significant release, and we are going to have a reasonable development cycle for this version," Allchin told eWeek in an interview Tuesday. "Often times we try to spin things too fast and spend all our time getting beta feedback and not enough innovation as I would have wanted."

Mike Toutonghi, vice president of the Windows eHome Division, stated that Longhorn will ship in the second half of 2004. "It will deliver the next generation of communications and collaboration experiences, streaming audio/video [A/V] functionality, integrated device connectivity, simplified networking, and tools to help Microsoft deliver on our promise of the connected home," he said.

Windows .NET, the server counterpart to Windows XP, has also been pushed back and will not hit store shelves until early 2003. Initially on a concurrent release track with Windows XP, Windows .NET was to ship at the end of 2001, but RTM was moved to early 2002 when Microsoft found itself far behind schedule. Release to manufacturing is now set for the end of this year with the first release candidate expected this summer.

In the meantime, Microsoft is working hard to complete the first service pack for Windows XP and recently sent beta invitations to top XP testers. SP 1 is scheduled for release later this year, along with Freestyle and the first Tablet PC devices. Allchin at WinHEC denied reports that Microsoft would issue a Windows XP refresh, dubbed Second Edition, before Longhorn.

Toms Hardware - AMD waves goodbye to Duron
AMD is to stop making budget Duron processors at some point towards the end of the year, when it completes the conversion of Fab 25 in Austin, Tx from CPU production to flash memory-only. That's what Jerry Sanders told analysts and press in a conference call yesterday.