Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system (OS) market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of OSs. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Microsoft would come to dominate other markets as well, notably the office suite market with Microsoft Office.

Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend the company used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws. Known for its interviewing process with obscure questions, various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business.Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC. They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft". The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.

Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.[6] However, it was DOS (Disk Operating System) that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC-DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC OS vendor. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin's disease.

Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division

The company's Client division produces the flagship Windows OS line such as Windows 7; it also produces the Windows Live family of products and services. Server and Tools produces the server versions of Windows, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a set of development tools called Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, a web application framework, and Systems Management Server, a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include: Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system, Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features, Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management.

Microsoft provides IT consulting ("Microsoft Consulting Services") and produces a set of certification programs handled by the Server and Tools division designed to recognize individuals who have a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator"). Microsoft Press, which publishes books, is also managed by the division. The Online Services Business division handles the online service MSN and the search engine Bing. As of December 2009, the company also possesses an 18% ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC without any editorial control; however, the division develops the channel's website, msnbc.com, in a joint venture with the channel's co-owner, NBC Universal

Source : Wikipedia

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T-Mobile renames upgraded 3G network '4G,' taking on Verizon and Sprint marketing

In the super-sophisticated technology ... In addition to the technology T-Mobile's 3G turned out better facilities than the 4G,

NEW YORK - Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless are building wireless data networks using new technologies that the industry calls fourth-generation, or 4G. Not to be outdone, T-Mobile USA launched a campaign this week that calls its own upgraded network "4G."

T-Mobile's network is based on what the rest of the industry considers 3G technology. But T-Mobile says calling it 4G is justified because downloads are as fast as the new 4G networks. "When consumers look at 4G ... if you ask nine of ten, they'll say it's about the speed," T-Mobile spokesman Reid Walker said.

Previously, T-Mobile has referred to the network as "offering 4G speeds," but it's giving up that qualification to call it "America's Largest 4G Network" in TV ads that started Tuesday evening.

The ads portray an iPhone as hampered by the "slow" AT&T network. AT&T Inc. spokeswoman Kate Tellier said AT&T uses the same upgraded network technology that T-Mobile does, and covers more people with it. AT&T calls its network 3G.

T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany. Its German wireless arm has performed similar upgrades, but it isn't calling its network "4G." In Sweden, the technology used by T-Mobile is known as "Turbo 3G."

Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge said the 4G tag isn't just about speeds, but rather about the underlying technology, and T-Mobile's network doesn't qualify.

Sprint's Clearwire Corp. subsidiary is building a network using WiMax technology, which qualifies as 4G under the common industry definition. Sprint started marketing its first 4G phone this summer, but it still uses Sprint's 3G network for calls and text messages.

Verizon Wireless is using another technology known as "Long Term Evolution," or LTE, to create a new data network. It's scheduled to light it up in 38 markets before the end of the year.

For downloading large files, LTE and WiMax in their current incarnation aren't faster than the "HSPA+" technology used by T-Mobile. But they use radically different method to transmit information, and they're designed from the ground up for data traffic rather than calls. Those two factors qualify them as 4G under the common industry conception of the term.

Sprint didn't say whether if it would challenge T-Mobile's advertising in court or with the advertising industry's self-regulatory panel. Verizon Wireless had no comment on T-Mobile's campaign.

Last fall, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. took each other to court over dueling claims about their networks in TV advertising.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless would face a problem if they want to shut down T-Mobile's campaign. The International Telecommunications Union, a standards-setting body of the United Nations, doesn't consider their LTE or WiMax networks to be 4G either. The ITU has ruled that only future versions of the two technologies, with vastly higher speeds, would qualify.

Source : startribune.com

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