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In an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, cleared that the company has no plans for rolling out a ZunePhone anytime in near future.

The interview takes place on the eve of Apple’s WWDC, which anticipates the unveiling of a new iPhone.

Bach stressed that Windows mobile has a very nice position to fit in the consumer market and Microsoft dosen’t have any plans to fiddle with it. He said

“We don’t make phones ourselves. We don’t have any plans to make phones ourselves. Our focus is on the belief that a phone is a very personal thing. Different people want different types of phones. We think that is going to continue, and we think Windows Mobile is in a great position to service all those different opportunities.”

Bach also pointed out how Microsoft aims at the market. He told

“There is more opportunity for services on top of the(those) phones. There is more opportunity for a richer experience. It’s not just about the phone. It’s about browsing. It’s about music. It’s about video. It’s about e-mails, text messaging and photos.”

Well, Microsoft may have its say, but as of now iPhone is rocking, who know how the future would look like? Will this be an yet another Apple-Microsoft Desktop saga?? or Would Apple be able to keep its hold over the market??

I remember seeing an awesomely kool looking video of Longhorn(now Vista) back in 2002-2003. It had features and GUI enough to push back Apple way behind the current game. For those who are not getting even a slightest idea check the video below.

[ youtube=http://youtube.com/w/?v=Tf29haATORQ]

So where are the features showcased during PDC-2003? Why Microsoft had to settle for something less and name it Vista? And why the features that resembles Mac? Why, Microsoft Why? What happened to Longhorn concept?Well, I’m still searching for the answer. Few points that come to my mind are:

• Business Strategy.

It could be Microsoft’s business strategy to first commercialize Vista, a rip-off of the longhorn concept, get the jargons Aero, Yukon, Avalon etc. out, and then release the main product. It could be like releasing Windows 2000 first and then XP(which is built over 2000).

• People not ready for it.

This could be partially true. If you remember Tablet-PC, which was popularized by Microsoft way back in 1993. There wasn’t much appreciation from the general public and Microsoft had to wait for almost a decade for it to get commercialize.

• Microsoft is still working on it.

The initial promise of Microsoft of a new File System, called WinFS was pulled off from Vista due to several reasons. Microsoft has to throughly test the whole new OS after integrating all the features. WinFS wouldn’t have finished by the deadline set for Vista’s release.

• More features = More resources

Well, I don’t need to explain much. Vista itself needs around 2Gb to work smoothly(512Mb minimum, but will minimum work for us?). A high level of UI presentation would mean a lot more that 4GB of RAM that the current 32-bit architecture won’t support.(Ahh i remember my old days when i begged my dad for 8Mb of RAM ).

• Not enough usage.

Yep, seriously, this could also be a reason. These features may look awesome to some, but for some it would be a time waster. There are a lot of people who change their start menu to the way old Win95/98/2k style and don’t prefer the xp/vista style. They feel comfortable in their old style zone. Pumping in all the frills may not be the update that they are looking for.

Well, all’s well that end’s well, i believe that Microsoft is not dropping the Longhorn concept, and would bring it back in the upcoming Windows7/Vienna.
What you say?

In their monthly Windows Update offerings, Microsoft has announced a trio of speed and reliablity updates to be available this tuesday. These updates would be offered through Windows Update.

These fixes are anyway also gonna get added to the Service Pack 1, whcih the company announced would be release anytime in the first quarter of the coming year.

Now, this is the second time after august that Microsoft has included Vista performance and reliablity hotfixes with Windows Update offerings. Seriously, this looks great, as the proverb goes “With great competition, comes great products” (yep, i just made it ;)). With Microsoft losing another percent in the desktop market to Apple, they have really geared up and are already on their heels. I believe, we would be seeing some more reliability and sped-boosters before SP1 is out.

Well, other updates that would be offered includes a multi update that:

• Extends laptop battery life.
• Improves the stability of wireless network connections.
• Shortens recovery time after exiting hibernation or sleep.
• Deals with compatibility problems with some antivirus software.

There are other fixes too, related to USB issues and an update to the Windows Media Centre. According to Nick White(Microsoft Vista’s Product Manager), the USB rollup fixes problems that have caused 1% to 2% of all reported Vista crashes.

[Credits : ComputerWorld]