6 billion euros for tied selling WindowsMediaplayer

Advertising on the Net: become a real player in the sector

Even if it is severely affected by the crisis and that it remains largely dominated by Google, the advertising market on the Web remains strategic for the future of Microsoft. A sector which is expected to generate $ 30 billion in five years on the US market only and which the firm chaired by Steve Ballmer intend to compete. In allying in July with Yahoo! and with its new search engine technology Bing, while strengthening its partnership with Publicis (through the sale of its digital communication agency Razorfish to the French group) to the agreement, Microsoft will be however hard to dethrone Google, including the search engine has more than three quarters of the market.

Mobile phone: his catch with Windows Phone

With in his sights the Apple iPhone, which continues to move in the forefront of "smartphones", Windows Phone brand new offensive of the firm of Redmond on the public sector. With a user interface more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows Mobile, the new operating system for mobile the firm should be available on phones by the end of the year 30. But the battle may be harsh, face not only to Apple - that Microsoft has failed to compete with the Zune in the field of digital music players - but with Symbian, Nokia, Android, Google.

Video games: revitalize the Xbox to Nintendo and Sony

In a highly competitive market and product life cycles in shorter, Microsoft is the penalty to the leader, Japanese Nintendo and the Wii. If the console Xbox 360, launched in 2005, continues to snack market share to Sony and the PS3, positioned as the most expensive market, games and entertainment of the firm of Redmond division suffered from lower prices that she had to agree to stay dans the race in the course of the past months and which has weighed on sales (-12 on last year) and the profitability of the activity.

Operating system: after Vista, adjust sales

Since the collapse of 29 of sales of Windows at the end of its last annual year ended June 30, the firm of Redmond is not the right error with its new Windows 7 operating system. As the number one world of software must forget the failure of Vista and restore growth despite the decline in the market of personal computers and the good performance of Apple in the mainstream universe. On the Mini-PC segment, which progresses, Windows is competed by the OS (operating system) free Linux. Pending the arrival of chromium OS expected for next year.

Office software: facilitate the sale of Office on PC and the Internet

The economic model of the sale of the suite Office Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, ) is weakened by the Internet. With the decrease in revenue, licensing and the offensive of the Google Apps Microsoft could not do not respond. Office 2010 launch in the spring, the distribution of the Office suite will be simplified (number of activation instead of DVD) and a free pré-offre Office Starter will be present on the PC, not to mention the launch of the Office Web Apps online, to counter Google.

Abuse of dominant position: avoid a fine for "tied selling".

The European Commission has given until November 7 to interested parties to share their comments on the concessions this summer by Microsoft. Its browser Internet Explorer (IE) Web is decoupled from Windows. A multiple choice is now proposed between IE8 and its competitors Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc. Brussels is also conducting an investigation also follow-up Office Office. The Group of Steve Ballmer had been sentenced between 2004 and 2007 to more than 1.6 billion euros for "tied selling" Windows-Mediaplayer.