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Microsoft de-emphasising phone hardware, writes off more than it paid for Nokia, cuts 7,800 jobs

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Windows Phone has not been the greatest success story in the world, and Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia to produce its own handsets looks to have been an even bigger flop. The company today announced that it is writing off $7.6B against the Nokia business – more than it paid for the company in the first place.

Microsoft has also revealed that it will be laying-off 7,800 staff – more than 6% of its workforce – over the next few months, mostly from the Phones business … 
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Microsoft continues its iOS app acquisition spree with Prismatic, a news reader startup that Apple eyed

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Since Satya Nadella took the reins from Steve Ballmer just over a year ago, Microsoft has been on an aggressive acquisition spree of cross platform apps and services. Most recently, the company bought the iOS email app Acompli then relaunched it as Outlook for iOS. Microsoft also bought Sunrise, the popular calendar software with an iOS app.

Aside from Microsoft and Apple, other interested buyers include or included Facebook, Google, and Yahoo (anyone missing?). Competing with Apple’s TestFlight acquisition last year, Microsoft even bought the beta distribution service Hockeyapp at the end of last year.

Adding to its list of recent mobile app acquisitions, TechCrunch reports that Microsoft is now eyeing Prismatic, a social recommendation network with apps for both iOS and Android. Prismatic describes itself as a personalized and social news reader.
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Phil Schiller joins the ranks of tech execs taking the Ice Bucket Challenge

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Apple’s Senior VP of Marketing posted a few photos of himself taking the Ice Bucket Challenge on Twitter today. The challenge was created by former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates in order to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease).

The challenge itself involves dumping a bucket of ice water over one’s head, then selecting a number of friends to do the same. Those who are challenged to participate but fail to do so within 24 hours are asked to donate to the ALS Association. Donations to the organization have reached over $1.35 million since the challenge started catching on in late July, a spokesperson said. During the same time last year that amount was only $22,000.

[tweet https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/499751668414566401 align=’center’]

Schiller isn’t the first tech executive to jump in on the trend. He was preceded by the likes of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. After taking the challenge, Schiller took to Twitter to call on a few others to join him, specifically naming “Chris, Kim, and Tim.” The Chris named in the tweet appears to be NCIS: Los Angeles actor Chris O’Donnell, who was also tagged in the tweet.

Interesting side note: Schiller’s tweet and photo are geotagged from a beach in Half Moon Bay, Califorina.

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Microsoft’s Office for iPad team talks development process, Ballmer, and more during Reddit AMA

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As Microsoft continues its Office for iPad marketing campaign, the team that developed the productivity software has taken to Reddit for an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, to answer questions and discuss the development process behind Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. By measure of upvotes, the most popular question as of the time of this writing asked when Office for iPad would gain the ability to print, something Apple’s iWork suite and many of apps already offer, to which the team replied “in due course” while noting the high demand of the feature.

But the team didn’t stop there; Microsoft’s Office for iPad team also shared photos of their lab (as seen in the above photo), talked about the development process for bringing Office to the iPad, and even addressed the notion that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer held Office back from the iPad…
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Yes, Apple is taking 30% of every Office 365 subscription purchased through Office for iPad

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When Microsoft announced its Office for iPad apps earlier today, it confirmed that the software will require a subscription to Microsoft’s $99/year Office 365 service for most functions. If you don’t have one already, you can get a subscription directly through the Office apps for the regular price of $99.

As you may recall, Apple and Microsoft went toe-to-toe last April on the issue of whether or not Apple should get a 30% cut for SkyDrive storage space purchased through the SkyDrive app. Apple has always maintained the position that any goods or services sold through iOS apps should use the in-app purchase system created by Apple—allowing the Cupertino company to take its regular 30% cut of the price.

In the case of the SkyDrive dispute, Apple’s decision remained unchanged, which prompted Microsoft to simply remove the option to purchase additional storage space through the SkyDrive app altogether. In the case of today’s Office launch, however, the two companies seem to be on much better terms.

Apple has confirmed to Re/code that the company is taking its full 30% share of all Office 365 purchases made through the iPad software. This apparent agreement, along with friendly tweets between the CEOs of both companies, could be the first signs of a much less combative Microsoft under the leadership of new CEO Satya Nadella, who replaced Steve Ballmer in the role this year.

Perhaps in the future we’ll see even more collaboration between the two companies.

Microsoft announces new Office for iPad apps including Word, PowerPoint, & Excel

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Microsoft’s Office suite of productivity apps has long been rumored to be in development for the iPad shortly after the tablet’s debut in 2010. Most notably was The Daily (now defunct) reporting it had knowledge (and screenshots) of Microsoft’s software for Apple’s mobile platform in 2011, something Microsoft was quick to deny was legitimate. Three years and one CEO later, Microsoft is finally ready to play nice with the iPad.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new CEO following Steve Ballmer’s retirement earlier this year, outlined Microsoft’s new cloud and mobile strategy for the company today including full Office for iPad support. Unlike the Office 365 app Microsoft introduced early last year, Microsoft’s new apps today include individual apps for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Microsoft’s Office suite of apps will each be available as a free download, but will require an Office 365 subscription (which offers a 30-day trial) to create and edit documents. Users can still read and present documents with Office for iPad without a subscription. Office documents will rely on Microsoft’s OneDrive service for syncing content.

WordPowerPoint, and Excel are now available on the App Store.


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Microsoft names Satya Nadella CEO as Bill Gates demoted from Chairman to ‘Technology Advisor’

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Following the announcement last August that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was out the door as soon as the company could find a new captain to lead the ship, the Board finally announced today that it has found its guy: Satya Nadella.

As part of the changes, founder and former CEO Bill Gates has agreed to step down from the Board and into a new role as ‘technology advisor’. Gates says he will step up his time at the company meeting with various groups and helping with future products at the request of Nadella.
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