Although news on or about Windows Phone may be slow coming out today there’s still plenty going on in the tech world that’s tied to Microsoft with some residual effects for our favorite mobile OS. Instead of spamming our own site with tangential news, we figured we would just summarize in a digest. Cool?
Today’s new stories that we've found interesting are the following—
- Motorola import ban for violating Microsoft’s patent goes into effect tomorrow
- Office 2013 has an app store + hidden Metro site
- Forbes Online says Nokia stock is worth holding on to
So head past the break to catch up on some of these interesting stories making the rounds today...
No more Motorola devices in the US starting tomorrow?
With everyone suing everyone these days over patent infringements it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on and where things stand. Microsoft and Motorola have a few cases going back and forth—the former is claiming infringement by Motorola over Exchange ActiveSync technology (“the generation of meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device”), the latter is charging Microsoft over the Xbox 360 and media streaming.
That first case though, dealing with Exchange ActiveSync, was ruled on two months ago by the US International Trade Commission with Motorola being found in violation of Microsoft’s patent on the syncing technology (Motorola was found not-guilty on either other counts). In short, Moto used to pay Microsoft for the license and then they stopped. We guess they were curious as to what would happen. Well, they were brought to court and they lost.
Result? If they don’t strike a deal with Microsoft they can’t sell their wares in the United States starting on July 18th. That looks like it may go into effect although Motorola swears they have a plan in place which either involves ignoring the order, removing the sync feature in question, patching the OS to get around the technology which they don’t own a license too or just licensing it from Microsoft.
Motorola is mum on the details so it will be real interesting to see what happens. Devices impacted are of course Moto’s Android smartphones and tablets specifically the Motorola Atrix, Backflip, Bravo, Charm, Cliq, Cliq 2, Cliq XT, Defy, Devour, Droid 2, Droid 2 Global, Droid Pro, Droid X, Droid X2, Flipout, Flipside, Spice, and Xoom.
And we all know who now owns Motorola—Google. Although this spat was started before the Google-Moto acquisition we can see how this has probably turned into a bit of a proxy war between the two companies. It should be interesting to see how this unfolds tomorrow. via Ars Technica
Office 2013 will have apps!
One of our readers, Yehia H., sent us a link with a new more Metro looking Office 2013 site which looks intended for its official launch this fall. Of course the preview (and other site) went live yesterday allowing users to take Office 2013 for a test drive (We’re using it right now. Love it.).
When you dig through the site though you can find the Marketplace for Office 2013 which evidently will allow you to plug in apps. Those apps look mostly tied to Outlook but they look hella cool like LinkedIn, Twitter, Merriam-Webster Dictionary and more odd things like Hertz car rental.
We’ve never thought about plugging in apps to our Office system but now that we think about this is a brilliant idea and fits in with the “app model” that Apple started with the iPhone. That model overtook smartphones (Google and Microsoft now have an app Marketplace) and Microsoft will have it for Windows 8 desktop—why not extend that to Office too?
You can see that site here: https://products.office.com/en-us/home?legRedir=default&CorrelationId=a5458fef-6449-4744-a823-a093ae5ef7ad&rtc=1
Forbes Online – Nokia stock worth holding on to
We’ve talked a lot lately about Nokia’s stock price—it has been disastrously low for the last few weeks and today is no better (currently holding steady at $1.73 a share). Nokia is expected to announce their earnings call very soon and no one expects the news to be good which is why you’re seeing the stock preemptively drop in preparation.
Most of our audience are die-hard fans though of the major Microsoft partner so we see the value of either holding on to stock or maybe even buying it now. Sure, Nokia will have a rough few months but long-term looks bright. If Windows Phone takes off, it Nokia who will lead the path for devices and that’s good news.
Forbes Online makes a good argument for this too noting that at $2 a share you could lose money but the long-term potential is huge as they predict stock could go over $10 and even hit $20 in a few years. If Nokia goes under, you’ll lose that money but as we’ve said before…Nokia can only go up.
"The long-term risk reward continues to be favorable. It is not out of the question that Windows phones may capture 15% to 20% of the market share. Nokia will experience tough competitors such as HTC and Samsung. In spite of tough competition, Nokia has the potential to go over $10 and even as high as $20 in the long run. On the flip side the stock can easily go to zero. There you have it, Nokia can be a ten-bagger or you can lose about $2.00.A small quantity of Nokia stock is worth holding in the speculative portion of a diversified portfolio."
We don’t own any stock ourselves nor are we well versed in giving advice but even we see this as a tempting deal. Microsoft won’t let Nokia be acquired by anyone else nor will they allow the company to just go under (that sends a bad message) so from our armchair perspective, we like what we see.
And that’s your Microsoft news roundup for the day…sound off in comments!
