LiveSide - News blog : Corporate Strategy

MSFT layoffs Pt. 2: Windows Live/Live Search largely unaffected; MSN Direct cut

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:51:57 GMT

Yesterday marked the second round of layoffs at Microsoft, as some 3,000 employees found themselves among the ranks of the unemployed. We’ve been trying to piece together some more detailed information about what was cut, and as usual Mini-Microsoft has been a good if not entirely reliable source of information. While we’ve done our best to piece together information from across the web, there isn’t much official confirmation of who or what was cut, so we can’t verify the accuracy of what has been reported.

Hardest hit in this new round of layoffs, according to an email from Kevin Turner (and reported by Mary Jo Foley), were SMSG (Sales, Marketing, Service Group), and MSIT, and most of the layoffs, some 1200, came out of Redmond and Washington State. Outsiders weren’t spared, however: Microsoft India took a big hit, as did offices in Ireland and the UK. The entire Madison, Wisconsin office was closed, if you can believe some of the comments on Mini-Microsoft’s “Cinco-de-Fire-O” post.

A couple of notable cuts include the entire editorial staffs of MSDN Magazine and Tech-Net magazine (which we were able to corroborate), although it’s not clear if the magazines themselves survived. Also cut were some projects coming out of the Small Business Accelerator program, including MSN Direct (yes it still existed), Response Point (a VoIP for small business program), and the .Net Micro Framework. It’s unclear from this little bit of information what it will all mean for the existing programs and their support.

Apparently largely unaffected were Windows, Office, Windows Live, and Live Search, although there were some significant cuts in Microsoft Advertising, including some, well, massive cuts at Massive, the inline game advertising platform Microsoft purchased in 2006.

As we were the last time, we were personally affected in this round, and sorry to hear that some of our LiveSide friends are no longer with the company. Best of luck to everyone that received bad news yesterday, and all the best in the future.

Microsoft would still “like to sit down” with Yahoo! on search deal

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:08:00 GMT

The Times Online reports today in an interview with Microsoft COO Kevin Turner that the door is still open to a search deal with Yahoo!:

In an interview with The Times, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, extended an olive branch to Carol Bartz, the new chief executive of Yahoo!, making it clear that a smaller deal regarding a partnership on search functions was still part of Microsoft’s thinking.

“They have a new CEO, and she’s formulating her business plans,” Mr Turner said.

“We’ve certainly made her aware and the Yahoo! board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we’d like to sit down and at least have the conversation. It has to make economic sense to both parties.”

Microsoft has repeatedly said that a deal to buy Yahoo! is off the table. It remains interested in a search deal, and there are at least some indications that Yahoo! may remain interested as well. Bartz may be willing to talk, although privately, according to remarks she made at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in early March:

"I said this to Mr. Ballmer, I will not negotiate with you and 30,000 of my closest friends. I will negotiate privately," said Bartz, adding to investors, "If something happens, you will know about it then."

Last week Yahoo! reverted on some changes it had made to its employee severance plan in the heat of last year’s takeover attempt by Microsoft, and settled a lawsuit brought by Yahoo! investors over the severance plan. Lawyer for the Yahoo! investors Joel Friedlander thinks the settlement could help a Microsoft – Yahoo! search deal:

Friedlander also noted that Microsoft officials saw Yahoo’s revised severance plan as creating “bad retention,” according to court papers unsealed in the case.

“The plan was an attempt to gum up an acquisition by Microsoft,” he said. The accord “makes a search-engine deal more likely.”

Microsoft continues to invest heavily in search, and appears to be readying a new look and a new brand for Live Search, “code-named” (read: float it out there and gauge the reaction) Kumo.com. However it continues to lag far behind in search market share. A deal with Yahoo! would help Microsoft gain share and credibility as it attempts to build a search and advertising base in order to fund search, and web ventures such as Windows Live, Outlook Live, Office Live, and web based versions of Office 14.

Some notes on the Microsoft layoffs

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:40:53 GMT

Big news out of Redmond today as the company announced elimination of some 5,000 positions in the next 18 months, some 1,400 of which are expected to come today. In addition, cuts are also coming to contractors, both in non-renewal of contracts (which has already begun), and in more immediate cuts.

What this means for any particular group or product remains unclear, and information is fueled largely by rumor at this point. A post on the Mini-Microsoft blog may be giving some glimpses into the nature of the cuts, although it is difficult to tell whether or not the mostly anonymous comments are valid. Some reduction in Live Search and Microsoft Advertising staff has been mentioned there, although in a conference call this morning Steve Ballmer said that Search was one of the places that would continue to hire, somewhat offsetting the cuts taking place.

More rumors have it that the Entertainment and Devices division, home of Xbox, Zune, and Windows Mobile, may face cuts and/or re-organization.

All in all it’s a stressful and uncertain time at Microsoft today. We wish all our friends there the best of luck, and hopefully both the economy and the climate at Microsoft will improve soon. This is no fun for Microsoft, but the company remains on solid footing, something that not every company can say in these uncertain times.

Live Mesh team joins Windows/Windows Live org

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:18:50 GMT

Mary Jo Foley is reporting that the Live Mesh team, which started out as a special project under Ray Ozzie and known at first as Windows Live Core, has joined the Windows / Windows Live org, under Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky. Mary Jo followed up on a tip and received confirmation from Microsoft:

“The Windows Live, Live Services Platform, and Live Mesh teams will now be a part of the unified Windows Live organization under Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering. David Treadwell, Corporate Vice President, Live Services Platform, will now report to Sinofsky and will continue his work on the Live Services Platform.”

While there have been lots of rumors and speculation about possible Microsoft cost cutting moves, including layoffs and/or reorganization, moving Live Mesh under Windows Live isn’t surprising, given that we’ve already been told that elements of Live Mesh will be incorporated into Windows Live products and services. We doubt this is a cost cutting move, rather a long planned move to move Live Mesh out of incubation and into the mainstream.

Thinking Outside The Box, In The Box! Microsoft Begins Container Testing At Chicago Data Center

Sunshine — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:29:56 GMT

Microsoft’s first Data Center that makes use of shipping containers as a primary server-packaging unit, has moved into the testing phase. The facility in Chicago is the first purpose-built Data Center to accommodate containers on such a large scale. When completed the Chicago Data Center will be one of the largest in the world with it’s capacity to house hundreds of thousands of servers, each shipping container holds approx. 2,500 servers!

The Chicago Facility is much more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than Data Centers were before. All because the use of those 40ft containers! And energy efficiency isn’t the only benefit, more about that in Mike Manos’ point of view on the Chicago Data Center. Mike Manos is the general manager of data center services for Global Foundation Services/Microsoft.

“..in my mind, containers are driving huge cost and efficiency (read also as cost benefits in addition to “green” benefits) gains for the business. This is an extremely important point, as Microsoft expands its data center infrastructure, it is supremely important that we follow an established smart growth methodology for our facilities that is designed to prevent overbuilding—and thus avoid associated costs to the environment and to our shareholders. We are a business after all. We must do all of this while also meeting the rapidly growing demand for Microsoft’s Online and Live services.”

“Containers, and this new approach is definitely a change in how facilities have traditionally been developed, and as a result many people in our industry are intimidated by it. But they shouldn’t be. Data center’s have not changed in fundamental design for decades. Sometimes change is good. The exposure to any new idea is always met with resistance, but with a little education things change over time.”

With that in mind Microsoft also announces they will hold their second Microsoft Data Center Experience (MDX) event in Chicago in Spring/summer 2009. The first one held in San Antonio was an opportunity for a couple hundred Microsoft enterprise customers to take a tour at the facilities and ask questions. That event was very successful and provided incredible feedback, so they decided to do one for the very first container data center too! More info on that on your Microsoft account management team or your local Microsoft sales office next Spring.

The newest Microsoft Data Center in West Des Moines, Iowa, will also be using this container technology.

West Des Moines, Iowa is “Where the Internet Lives”; site for newest Microsoft data center

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:27:00 GMT

Microsoft and the state of Iowa have announced the location of the newest Microsoft data center, in West Des Moines, Iowa. Located “southwest of the intersection of Booneville Road and South 88^th Street (also known as Xavier Place)” (see map), the data center will be focused on online services:

The data center, described as the place “where the internet lives,” is expected to house large-scale, worldwide Web services for Microsoft's online services business. With the growth of audio and video applications, social Web sites, mobile devices and other Internet demands, data centers are becoming increasingly important as companies strive to increase online computing support centers to provide users with enhanced Web services.

(click on the image to go to Live Search Maps – the marked area is an approximation of the 42 acre size of the property)

While Microsoft couldn’t quite knock Iowan Shawn Johnson off the front page of the Des Moines Register, it’s still big news. The Register reported:

The "next generation" data center will employ 50-75 workers who will earn about $70,000 annually, said Michael Manos, Microsoft¹s general manager of data center services. The project will be located on 42 acres southwest of the Booneville Road at the intersection of Xavier Road.

…(Iowa Governor Chet) Culver called it the most "modern facility in the world" with its focus on energy efficiency.

We’re checking now on whether or not that means the new data center will use Microsoft’s container system.

(Update:) We now have this confirmed that the Iowa facility will use container technology.

Live Search coming to Facebook

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:02:09 GMT

This morning at the Financial Analyst’s Meeting (FAM), being held on Microsoft’s campus, Satya Nadella announced an extension of Microsoft’s U.S. relationship with Facebook to encompass search. An email from Waggener Edstrom clarifies:

As part of the deal, Microsoft will work with Facebook to bring its customers Live Search-powered web search and search ads by the end of the calendar year. Facebook will work with Microsoft to design the best search experience for Facebook’s customers and advertisers.

While Microsoft has been in partnership with Facebook on ads already, powering search on Facebook seems to be quite a coup.

Further details should be coming soon. During most of the morning, Steve Ballmer was onstage, saying at one point that he would be taking over a part of the program for Kevin Johnson, who is leaving the company “in 3 weeks”, according to Ballmer. Ballmer spent quite a bit of time on the online services businesses, taking pains to point out that Windows Live, MSN, and Microsoft Advertising are all holding their own, and that the 1.2 billion dollar shortfall in online services is almost entirely due to investments in Live Search. Here’s a somewhat fuzzy screenshot of the powerpoint slide illustrating this:

Microsoft announces reorganization - Platforms & Services Devision will be split up

Gregor — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:35:00 GMT

In an unexpected move Microsoft today announced that the Platforms & Services Devision (PSD) will be split into two groups: Windows/Windows Live and Online Services. While the PSD President Kevin Johnson will work to ensure a smooth transition he will be leaving the company after 16 years.

“Kevin has built a supremely talented organization and laid the foundation for the future success of Windows and our Online Services Business. This new structure will give us more agility and focus in two very competitive arenas,” Ballmer said. “It has been a pleasure to work with Kevin, and we wish him well in the future.”

“Microsoft is a special place and presents opportunity to so many,” Johnson said. “I have been so fortunate to have experienced 16 amazing years of building Microsoft’s business, learning from great leaders in the company and working with phenomenally talented people.”

In the new structure senior vice presidents Steven Sinofsky, Jon DeVaan and Bill Veghte will report directly to Ballmer to lead Windows/Windows Live. They are responsible for Microsoft's end user software releases with new versions of Windows Internet Explorer, Windows and the Windows Live product suite in the pipeline.

For the Online Services Business group Microsoft is looking at internal and external candidates for a newly created senior lead position.

In the meantime, Senior Vice President Satya Nadella will continue to lead Microsoft’s search, MSN and ad platform engineering efforts. Microsoft recently announced a strategy to redefine search through innovations in the user experience and business models. As an example, the company’s cashback search program, announced in May, is already generating strong momentum among online shoppers and advertisers

Additionally, senior vice president Brian McAndrews will continue to lead the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group (APS).

“Our Windows business is firing on all cylinders,” Ballmer said. “We see tremendous opportunity in search and advertising, and we have a clear strategy for investing in success today and growth in the future.”

Microsoft’s Online Services Business posts $0.5bn loss in Q4 2008

Chris — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:53:00 GMT

So there’s a bunch of financial results out today, including Microsoft, Google and IBM, all of whom posted strong profit growths in the last quarter (what impending recession?) Anyway I’ve broken down the results for the Online Services Business below, which now show their worst performance since the start of Windows Live (MSN is also included).

Revenue has remained largely flat in the last 3 quarters at just over $0.8bn, which is somewhat worrying given the impressive revenue growth going on over at Google. Also bare in mind the acquisition of aQuantive earlier this year, hence the large revenue jump between Q1 and Q2. In stark contrast, costs have shot up in Q4 to a record $1.3bn, giving an overall loss for the quarter of $0.5bn. Owch.

Here’s the quarter on quarter changes. Click through for larger images + data.

I’ve defended these results in the past (Q4 2007 looks rosy now) and the same logic still applies. More datacenter investments being made for Live Mesh and other online services, and more employees being hired for Search and other Software + Services products.

However posting a $0.5bn loss in one quarter is bad, no matter how you try to paint it, and makes the need for acquiring Yahoo look all the more greater. Admittedly its still not as bad as the $1.2bn loss posted by E&D, the Xbox and Zune division, in Q4 2007 - the entire OSB loss for 2008 is only $1.3bn. Next year could be crunch time though, with Mesh, Live Search and Windows Live Wave 3 all needing to move up a gear.

Microsoft ad spend rises to $500m - Windows.com gets “FTP” update and promotes Windows Live

Chris — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:53:27 GMT

Today saw another Microsoft ad campaign being won by the agencies, this time for the Business Solutions unit, with $200m being the amount touted for winning the enterprise advertising. This is in addition to the $300m for the consumer campaign going to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, part of which is the “Free The People” marketing campaign.

On a related noted is something we forgot about in all the iPhone madness at the end of last week (Steve Jobs’ RDF affects even the best of us). LiveSino today picked up the new Windows.com homepage that has been rolled out, doing away with the Windows Vista UI and instead adopting the same feel as the new Windows Mobile homepage we posted about a few weeks back.

What’s interesting about the new page is the huge prominence given to Windows Live, and underneath that Windows Mobile. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking this wasn’t the Windows homepage at all, as it barely gets a mention – you’ll need to hover over the Products menu at the top to start looking at the different Windows versions.

This is all part of a much larger picture, aiming to improve perception and awareness of the various Microsoft consumer offerings. Much more of this coming over the rest of the year, and then into 2009 as Windows Live Wave 3 and finally Windows Mobile 7 join into the campaign. PC vs Mac set the benchmark high, so it’ll be interesting to see what this campaign produces.

MSFT-YHOO, it just continues*

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:07:00 GMT

Like the soap opera it has become, the workings behind a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! just don’t ever seem to end. This week we’ve seen a Yahoo! PowerPoint presentation that tries to place all the blame on the failed deal on Microsoft, Microsoft’s purchase agreement with Powerset, the apparent launch of a formal US Justice Department investigation into the Google-Yahoo! search deal, and now a new Wall Street Journal article reporting new talks between Microsoft and Yahoo!, only now possibly including either Time Warner, Inc (AOL), or News Corp. (MySpace).

According to the Washington Post, the ad deal that Yahoo! struck with Google after Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer backed out (which Yahoo! desperately tried to talk them out of, it turns out – more below) is under formal scrutiny by the Justice Department:

Investigators are planning to demand documents not only from Google and Yahoo, but also from other large companies in the Internet and media industries, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Google and Yahoo officials have said since the deal's announcement that they would delay its implementation for a voluntary Justice Department review. But a formal investigation signals that the department may have found some cause for concern.
…
But lawyers familiar with similar investigations said that the kind of legal requests being issued by the Justice Department in this case -- "civil investigative demands" -- are not used for routine matters.

"They don't do it without having identified significant issues," said M.J. Moltenbrey, a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyer who was director of civil non-merger enforcement in the Justice Department's antitrust division in the 1990s. "It involves approval at higher levels within the antitrust division."

And then tonight, the Wall Street Journal reports that “Microsoft Corp., positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business, has approached other media companies in recent days about joining in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup…”.

Microsoft has held discussions with Time Warner Inc. and News Corp., among others, say people involved in the talks. In the past, Microsoft has floated an arrangement under which it would acquire Yahoo's search business and another partner, such as News Corp.'s MySpace or Time Warner's AOL, would combine forces with what remained of Yahoo.

The Journal article goes on to provide a detailed timeline of Yahoo!s attempts to get Microsoft back to the table after Ballmer pulled out, up to and including the color of Ballmer’s shirt (I don’t want the WSJ to go all AP on me - it’s a very good read, but behind a paid firewall).

With Yahoo! stock about to dip below $20 per share, and the Board of Directors elections coming up in a month, things aren’t looking good for Yahoo! right now, even with the Google deal. Will Microsoft be able to put together a deal with either AOL or MySpace in play? Will the Justice Department begin to chip away at the seemingly impregnable Google? Will Powerset, cashback, an HP deal, and a new Search Technology Center be enough to begin to turn the tide?

As The World Turns, indeed.

+++
* “Swung on and lined down the left field line for a base hit…Here comes Joey… Here comes Junior to third base… THERE GONNA WAVE HIM IN!! THE THROW TO THE PLATE WILL BEEEEEEE LATE!! THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSIP!! I DON’T BELIEVE IT! IT JUST CONTINUES! MY, OH MY!!”

Microsoft acquires Powerset – Mainstream search goes to the next level

Chris — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:28:03 GMT

After much ho-humming around whether Microsoft would or would-not acquire Powerset, the deal is now done and announced over on the Live Search blog. Though the price has not been announced, ReadWriteWeb were running with a rumour a few days back saying it was at the $100m range.

For those who’ve missed all the recent coverage about Powerset, its a natural language search engine, allowing users to phrase their query how they would naturally write. Stop and think for a second about how you use Google or Live Search.

Are you using sentences, or carefully chosen keywords?

There’s a video demo of Powerset, which gives a great introduction to the company’s technology.

Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

So what does this acquisition do for Microsoft’s search ambitions? Well it gives them a leg-up on Google, who were rumoured to be trying to acquire Powerset for themselves, but as we’ve seen for several months now, Microsoft’s technology and relevance is already on-par with Google’s. The key aspect again comes back to marketing and conversion of users, something that no amount of technology acquisitions will solve quickly. Then again, Microsoft looks like its in it for the long-term, and is now starting to get out of 1st gear. Disrupting search indeed.

Microsoft launches new Windows Mobile homepage – $200m Free The People project starts

Chris — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:03:26 GMT

Today Microsoft has launched an updated version of the Windows Mobile homepage over on Microsoft.com, powered by Silverlight. While not big news in itself, this launch is part of Microsoft’s new project to better promote its consumer offerings, which under the old codename was referred to as FTP168. Bill Gates mentioned this in his exit interview with Forbes last week, with FTP standing for “Free The People” and having a spend of $200m (we heard that the 168 was the initial budgeted spend). tips at liveside dot net for the new name

Looking at the new Windows Mobile homepage it is clear that some significant work has gone into promoting the benefits of a Microsoft-powered device, with users able to compare the latest devices being offered by worldwide carriers, filtering by features such as touch screen, flip keyboard or WiFi. The results of these searches are still on the old-style pages, which when you click through to show just had poorly these products have been marketed. There’s also a new interactive experience, showing off the new Windows Mobile 6.1 UI and how with Windows Live and Microsoft Office Mobile it complements the existing PC experience.

In addition the relaunch sees the somewhat clunky Windows Mobile Owners Circle being renamed to Windows Mobile Total Access, which is still promoting the 3rd party applications that run on Windows Mobile. Will this be enough to stop developers migrating over to developing iPhone applications? Probably not, which is why Microsoft needs to deliver a compelling experience with the launch of Windows Mobile 7 early 2009 and Windows Live Wave 3 later this year. Mary Jo Foley has been digging into the ties between these two product ranges already, which if you’re a user of both makes for interesting reading:

Microsoft internal memo details Windows 7-Windows Live ties

Gates emphasizes PC-phone connectivity in Windows 7

So does the new website impress you - in particular if you’re an iPhone or non-Windows Mobile user, does this encourage you to buy one of these devices?

Microsoft plans acquisition of MobiComp: Portugese Mobile services company

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:13:01 GMT

Microsoft has just announced that it plans to acquire MobiComp. MobiComp is, according to the press release:

…a company that helped pioneer technologies allowing the backup and restoration of mobile data and mobile posting of social content to Web sites such as Facebook. The acquisition would combine MobiComp's expertise building innovative mobile data protection and sharing services with Microsoft's vision to provide compelling experiences that span work and play across mobile phones, the Web and PCs. Terms of the planned acquisition are not being disclosed.

MobiComp, founded in 2000 in Braga, Portugal offers a number of services, according to their website. These are from the Products page:

Protect it:
MobileKeeper™ Backup & Restore is the most comprehensive ‘over the air’ mobile backup and restore solution in the marketplace. It can protect any kind of content held on a mobile device from contacts, calendars, text messages, photos, videos, music, bookmarks,
ring tones and applications to business files like Microsoft Word and Excel. The backup takes place automatically, direct to a secure web site, so that data can be easily recovered - and managed - via a simple, secure web interface.

Share it:
MobileKeeper™ Sharing & Communities is the perfect tool for the burgeoning trend of mobile social networking. Users can create, share and download content, while building their personal communities and networks or publish content direct to blogs and social networking sites such as Flickr and Hi5 on the move, with ease.

Discover it:
Mobilekeeper™ Service Discovery includes the latest product in the suite, the Active mTicker™ - a zero-click application that pushes aggregated, personalised information at subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ‘ticker’ that runs along the bottom of the screen when the device is in idle mode. It’s a win-win that provides a direct and powerful channel for:

Operators to push personalised, high-value content and services (as well as advertising) direct to customers;

Customers to discover and subscribe to new services and products - from RSS feeds to blogs.

In addition, MobiComp offers Active mTicker, “a mobile, “zero-click” application that pushes personalised information at subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen when the device is in idle mode”.

…and also MobileKeeper:

MobileKeeper™ automatically backs up and restores all types of mobile data -from contacts, calendars, text messages, photos, videos, music, bookmarks, ring tones and applications to business files like Microsoft Word and Excel.

The backup takes place automatically and data can be easily recovered via a simple web interface.

The data is compressed ‘over the air’ which speeds download time and increases security.

And it’s all done intelligently, so only new data is backed up each time, and if for any reason a download is interrupted, MobileKeeper remembers what was saved beforehand.

Microsoft stops Windows Live VOIP services from July

Chris — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:30:00 GMT

Last year Microsoft announced that the existing VOIP partnership with Verizon would be terminating in 2008. Currently this service allows Windows Live Messenger users to call friends and family using regular landlines and mobile phones, but this functionality is set to expire over the next few months.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, this service will terminate on the following dates:

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) - July 15th 2008,
USA - August 31st 2008.

They confirmed that so far, no replacement service has been identified.

“Microsoft is actively investigating a successor to Verizon Web Calling in Windows Live Messenger in EMEA and the U.S. and hopes to offer the service again in the coming months. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers.”

So what does this mean for Microsoft’s VOIP strategy? Its been disjointed, lacked development and made no visible progress over the past 2 years, and now we have the prospect of the service being discontinued indefinitely. However there is some hope on the horizon.

At the end of last month, Mary Jo Foley talked about a service codenamed Echoes. She explains how the different aspects of this project are expected to function with the help of network operators, in particular regarding the synchronising of contacts to and from all mobile devices, and enabling text message (SMS) to IM conversations. In addition parts of Echoes throw light on Microsoft’s own VOIP platform plans:

Step 1: “Echoes will assign a local mobile number to each Windows Live contact”
…
Step 5: “Voice calls can be connected through Echoes directly from the mobile to the Windows Live Messenger user’s PC”

Mary Jo mentioned this new functionality shipping with Windows Live Messenger v9 betas, following on from the TAP trials being undertaken in Europe and Asia over this summer. Swisscom and TeleNor are allegedly some of the EMEA partners, with trials in Asia rumoured to be using Starhub (#2) and M1 (#3). Anybody in these countries heard anything about the testing going on? If so drop us an email, we’d be interested to hear how what’s going on.

Given the expected v9 ship date of Q4 2008 however, it seems like a somewhat tall order for Microsoft to ship a working VOIP platform and cross-partner systems integration in just a few months. Echoes seems to be perhaps a more realistic aim for Windows Live Wave 4, which would mean Microsoft needs a stop-gap VOIP provider for the next 18 months. With only 1 month left to run in EMEA, anybody care to guess when the service comes back online?

(I couldn’t find any user stats for VOIP services except Skype, so its difficult to tell how many users will be affected by this.)