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Spreadtrum is to be acquired by a Chinese high-tech investment enterprise owned by the state and also belonging to the leading Tsinghua University with microelectronics research interests

June 26, 2013 5:32 pm / 1 Comment on Spreadtrum is to be acquired by a Chinese high-tech investment enterprise owned by the state and also belonging to the leading Tsinghua University with microelectronics research interests

The top 10 SoC design enterprises of Mainland China had US$3.8B revenue in 2012. Out of that Spreadtrum had US$725.2M which is not less than 19%. On the ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ I’d reported extensively on the reasons:

It is also notable that this (together with MediaTek offerings) lead to Qualcomm’s SoC business future is questioned first time [May 1, 2013].

Update: TrendForce: Mediatek and Spreadtrum Advance in China Market while Qualcomm’s Chip Usage Declines [press release, June 27, 2013]

Mediatek has been making an impressive run lately; not only is the Taiwan-based chip manufacturer commanding its way in the mid-to-high end smartphone space, it has also successfully penetrated the 4G mobile market thanks to its recently announced 4G chip. According to the latest statistical data compiled by TrendForce, a global market research firm, Mediatek’s processors have been used by over 50% of China’s branded smartphones since the MT6575 chip was introduced in 2012. Due in large part to factors such as high pricing and the lack of hardware and software compatibility with various Chinese-made devices, Qualcomm’s chip usage rate has been gradually declining in China, and shrunk to as low as 33% in 2013. With Qualcomm and Mediatek both devoting their attention towards the mid to high end smartphone consumer segment, much of the low-end smartphone space has been left to Spreadtrum, which has recently unveiled a processor intended for low end hardware devices. In 2013, Spreadtrum’s chip usage rate in the Chinese market grew to approximately 11%.
imageFigure-1 2013 Smartphone processor market share in China’s smartphone market
Source: DRAMeXchange, June, 2013

Despite being an indisputable leader in the high end smartphone market, Qualcomm’s MSM8X30, MSM8X26, and MSM8X25Q processors are still facing a lot of stiff competition in the low-to-mid end mobile sectors. A way Qualcomm may reverse its struggles in China is by taking advantage of the country’s rapidly growing 4G/LTE developments. The company will have a good chance of emerging as a major LTE market leader should China’s 4G business opportunities appear early next year.  

Although Mediatek has generally been known to promote two new items on an annual basis, this year the Taiwan-based company has chosen to break away from tradition by announcing a total of four different products. The first –the MT6589– was announced during 1H13, and is intended for the mid-to-high end smartphone market; the remaining three products—all of which are smartphone chips—are expected to be introduced at some point during 2H13. Among the new processors, the duo core, Cortex A7-based MT6572 chip stood out as particularly noteworthy given its potential to exert a lot of impact on the low end smartphone market. The said chip is unique in that it supports China’s TD SCDMA system, is priced in a notably affordable range, and sports a good degree of compatibility with various low cost components (which could help push manufacturing costs down to as low as $US 40). All in all, this chip provides a perfect opportunity for Mediatek to compete against the low-end smartphone chips that are designed by Spreadtrum. The MT6575 is expected to become popular within the mid-to-low end smartphone market and should help Mediatek cement its position within the low end sector.
Following the release of the MT6589 chip, which is expected to open up new opportunities in the mid-to-low end market, Mediatek aims to introduce the quad core MT6580 and MT6582 in 2H13. MT6582 is considered a more affordable version of MT6589, and supports both qHD resolution and 8MP camera. These features are expected to help the company redefine the boundaries of a mid-end smartphone as well as increase its overall consumer appeal. The MT6580, on the other hand, is intended to be a viable alternative to a Qualcomm chip. Other than supporting 1.5Ghz speed, HD resolution, and 13MP camera, the chip is able to work with the kinds of high-quality hardware that are typically compatible with Qualcomm processors. According to TrendForce, if Mediatek is indeed successful in enhancing its presence in the high end market, a price war involving high-end processors is likely to ensue. Should this happen, both consumers and smartphone manufacturers will benefit, and the boundaries among high end smartphone devices will become less and less clear.    
With China’s recent plans to expand the TD-LTE coverage for its 500 million users by 2020, and with the 4G industry growing at a tremendously rapid pace, the LTE ecosystem in China is set to become more and more mature in the foreseeable future. Qualcomm is very likely to benefit from such a trend given its priority on the 4G/LTE business. Following the high end chip pricing war, the 4G/LTE market will likely become next battlefield for chip makers.

End of the update

Tsinghua University investment arm makes buyout offer for Spreadtrum [Asian Venture Capital Journal, June 24, 2013]

Spreadtrum [展讯] Communications [处在], a Chinese mobile chip manufacturer backed by NEA, has received a [non-binding] buyout offer from a unit of Tsinghua Holdings, an investment entity controlled by Beijing-based Tsinghua University. The offer values Spreadtrum at $1.35 billion.

According to a regulatory filing, Tsinghua Unigroup will pay $28.50 in cash for all outstanding American Depository Shares – a 20% premium on the stock’s previous closing price. Spreadtrum’s stock jumped more than 16% in response to the announcement, closing Friday at $25.91.

As of year-end 2012, NEA owned 10.4% of the company, having initially participated in the $19.8 million Series B round in 2002. Spreadtrum went public on NASDAQ in 2007, raising $124.6 million. Silver Lake bought a 13% stake for $40 million in 2010 but exited the following year.

In 2011, Spreadtrum also came under fire from short-seller research firm Muddy Waters over alleged accounting discrepancies. The company denied any wrongdoing.

“We believe that an Acquisition by Tsinghua Unigroup [紫光集团有限公司], which is majority-owned by Tsinghua University, a central player in China’s technology and R&D sectors, would provide compelling strategic synergies and position the company for additional value creation in key wireless communications markets in China and elsewhere going forward,” Unigroup CEO Weiguo Zhao said in a letter to shareholders.

Tsinghua Holdings has committed to guarantee full equity or debt funding up to the total purchase price of $1.5 billion.

Spreadtrum was founded in 2001 and develops mobile chipset platforms for 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communication standards. Customers include handset manufacturers selling into China and other emerging markets. The company posted a net income of $92.4 million for 2012, down from $134 million the previous year, although revenues jumped 7.6% to $725.2 million.

Tsinghua Holdings is a state-owned company responsible for managing the majority of Tsinghua University’s commercial assets. As of year-end 2012, Tsinghua Holdings had approximately RMB70.4 billion ($11.5 billion) in assets and a net income of RMB1.45 billion. Unigroup focuses on high-tech, biotech, real estate and urban infrastructure investments.

Tsinghua Science Park Venture Capital, which also ultimately falls under the control of Tsinghua Holdings, participated in Spreadtrum’s Series A and B rounds.

Note that this shows the strong determination by the Chineses State because:
我国大陆IC产业发展面临三大障碍 Mainland China IC industry is facing three major obstacles [Hexun.com, June 22, 2013] as translated by Google and Bing with manual edits

Summary:

What are the essential elements in the development of the IC industry or power? The industry generally believes that strong government support, pragmatic policies and systems, building good infrastructure and abundant human resources, are the key elements how the IC industry in developing countries and regions may come from behind.

…

The operating efficiency of the Innovation Alliance, of the official mechanisms for collaboration, research, and industry R&D is not high, which is one of the significant factors restricting the rapid development of mainland China’s IC industry.

Mainland China’s IC industry in recent years gained rapid development, and some of the advantages of the competitiveness of enterprises began to appear. Taking the fastest-growing design industry as an example, in 2011 the overall IC design industry sales continued to maintain a high growth rate, reaching 47.374 billion yuan [US$7.7B], an increase of 30.2% year on year. In 2012, total sales for the top 10 design enterprises in China reached 23.117 billion yuan [US$3.8B], an increase of 2.97 billion yuan [US$484M] over the previous year. 10 companies accounted for 33.97% of total industry sales, 2.21% increase over the 31.76% in the previous year. First business sales reached $ 1.183 billion.

Spreadtrum Communications [展讯通信], RDA [锐迪科], HiSilicon [海思], Zhuhai Allwinner [珠海全志] and so on, i.e. the SoC enterprises have made great achievements in the field. But compared with Taiwanese and Korean enterprises there is still relatively slow development, the products are low-tech, and the competitiveness of the enterprises is weak. Price is also the company’s main business strategy, “design” is still not a mainstream, the situation of slow building of the base capability had not improved. Industry-wide sales may also be less than the sum of the sales of the world’s top-ranked design firms.

Note that out of the US$3.8B revenue of the top 10 design enterprises in 2012 Spreadtrum had US$725.2M which is not less than 19%. This data alone shows how important is the Spreadtrum acquisition in order to speed up the further development of the IC industry by putting the company together with the Tsinghua University which has a Research Institute of Circuits And Systems as well as an Institute of Microelectronics (IMETU), see here and here:

IMETU, the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University, was founded in 1980 on the basis of the Semiconductor Research Division, which was a research division of the Department of Electronic Engineering established in 1957. The mission of IMETU is to educate top level professionals and deliver scientific innovations in the domain Micro/Nano-electronics. During the past 30 years, IMETU has made significant contributions and key achievements for the development of China’s semiconductor and integrated circuit industry. Its faculty members and students won 8 national awards, more than 20 province or ministry level awards, as well as 136 granted patents. The institute consists of four divisions, Solid-State Devices and Integration Technologies, IC & System Design, Micro/Nano Devices and Systems, and CAD Technology. Up until March 2012, IMETU has 94 faculty and staff members, among which there are 14 professors and 46 associate professors. After 30 years of development, IMETU has been China’s leading research and education base in the area of Micro/Nano electronics. It has established a high-quality research infrastructure for microelectronics comprising of two major research directions, Micro/Nano electronics and IC & System Design. Meanwhile, alumni of IMETU have become the backbone of China microelectronic industry.

which is also the premier university partner of The Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Major shareholders of Spreadtrum (with more than 5%): source Annual Reports

 
March 15, 2008
March 15, 2009
March 31, 2010
Feb 28, 2011
Feb 29, 2012
Feb 28, 2013
Scott Sandell [also includes New Enterprise Associates 11, Limited Partnership shares]
15.42%
15.71%
14.92%
14.4%
10.9%
10.4%
Entities affiliated with New Enterprise Associates 11, Limited Partnership
15.36%
15.61%
14.76%
14.2%
10.7%
10.1%
Entities affiliated with Fortune Venture Investment Group
6.31%
6.29%
        
Entities affiliated with Pacific Venture Partners
5.21%
5.30%
        
Entities affiliated with Silver Lake Partners
    
12.47%
5.8%
    
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
    
5.45%
  
5.2%
  
FMR LLC and Edward C. Johnson 3d
      
5.3%
    
FMR LLC
          
9.9%
Waddell & Reed Group
          
5.3%

image
source: Yahoo! Finance SPRD Major Holders

Tsinghua Unigroup Announces Offer to Buy Spreadtrum Communications [press release, June 21, 2013]

BEIJING–(Marketwired – Jun 21, 2013) – Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Unigroup”) today confirmed that it has made a non-binding offer to acquire Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRD) (“Spreadtrum” or the “Company”) for $28.50 in cash per American Depositary Share (the “Transaction”). Spreadtrum is a leading fabless semiconductor provider in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards. The offer represents a premium of 20.1% over the closing price of the Company’s shares on June 19, 2013, the day preceding the delivery of the offer and 44.3% over the volume weighted closing price of the Company’s shares for the 30 trading days preceding the delivery of the offer.

Unigroup is an operating subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd., a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Tsinghua Holdings owns and manages a substantial majority of the commercial assets of Tsinghua University. As of December 31st, 2012, Tsinghua Holdings had total assets of approximately 70.4 billion RMB [$11.45B], EBITDA of approximately 4.07 billion RMB, and net income of approximately 1.45 billion RMB for fiscal year 2012. Tsinghua Holdings’ corporate credit rating is AA+ according to CCXI, the Chinese domestic JV partner of Moody’s and the leading credit rating agency in China. Additional information about Tsinghua Holdings can be found at (http://www.thholding.com.cn/english/simpleindex.aspx). 

According to the preliminary non-binding proposal letter, Tsinghua Holdings has committed to guaranteeing the aggregate purchase price, which may be funded through a combination of equity and debt financing. 

Unigroup is excited about the proposed acquisition of Spreadtrum and the strategic opportunity this Transaction provides given the strength of this leading China-based business. Mr. Zhao Weiguo, the Chairman and CEO of Unigroup, commented, “We are enthusiastic about Spreadtrum’s business and market position globally and here in China, and we see Spreadtrum as an excellent strategic fit with Unigroup’s overall commercial objectives. We look forward to working together on the details of our proposed acquisition.” 

Unigroup’s proposal is non-binding and is subject to, among other things, satisfactory due diligence with respect to Spreadtrum and the execution of acceptable definitive agreements. There can be no assurance that Spreadtrum will support the Transaction, that any definitive binding offer will be made by Unigroup with respect to the Transaction, that any agreement with respect to the Transaction will be executed, that any conditions, including with respect to regulatory approval, will be satisfied, or that this Transaction or any other transaction, on the proposed terms or on any other terms, will be approved or consummated. Unigroup does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this Transaction or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.

About Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.

Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Unigroup”) is an operating subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd., a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China. Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd. is the controlling shareholder of Unigroup. Unigroup’s business lines include high-technology, bio-technology, science park development, and urban infrastructure construction.

About Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.

Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRD) (“Spreadtrum”) is a fabless semiconductor company that develops mobile chipset platforms for smartphones, feature phones and other consumer electronics products, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards. Spreadtrum’s solutions combine its highly integrated, power-efficient chipsets with customizable software and reference designs in a complete turnkey platform, enabling customers to achieve faster design cycles with a lower development cost. Spreadtrum’s customers include global and China-based manufacturers developing mobile products for consumers in China and emerging markets around the world. For more information, visit www.Spreadtrum.com.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy any security, nor is it a solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of the securities referred to in this press release in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law.

Note that with June 27, 2007 Spreadtrum IPO on Nasdaq the company had $125.9M initial market capitalization which a year later became $209.41M; the quarterly revenue at IPO time was US$38.6M:

image

image

Data is in US$

Spreadtrum Closes $35.2 Million Series C funding [press release, June 4, 2004]

Sunnyvale, California – June 4, 2004 – Spreadtrum Communications Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company developing and marketing innovative digital wireless communications products, today announced the completion of $35.2 million Series C financing led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with additional participation from existing investors, Fortunetech Investment Fund, Pacific Venture Group, Vertex, Legend Capital, HuaHong International and more.

“Proceeds from this financing will be used primarily to expand operations and to develop new product offerings,” said Dr. Ping Wu, President of Spreadtrum. ‘Spreadtrum has gained customers acceptances in the GSM/GPRS markets and is now gaining traction in the 3G area. We are very pleased to be working with these experienced venture capital firms. With their industry knowledge and resources, we are confident we will expand our global reach.
“Spreadtrum has all the components we look for when making an investment,” said Scott Sandell, NEA general partner and Spreadtrum board member. “With its experienced management team and superior technology, Spreadtrum is poised to emerge as one of the world-class fabless semiconductor companies. They continue to demonstrate their ability to develop and market their products while gaining traction in this large, explosive market.”
Spreadtrum is currently shipping GSM/GPRS baseband chipset SC6600 families and GSM/GPRS module SM5100 families. The SC6600 is a highly integrated GSM/GPRS single baseband mixed signal chip containing all digital and analog functionality for a GSM/GPRS wireless phone. The SM5100 provides both voice and data functions, and can be used in GSM/GPRS tri-band cell phones, data modems and other mobile terminal devices. Reference designs for a complete GSM/GPRS handset terminal are available. Spreadtrum also has single and dual CPU solutions for various market demands. More information about Spreadtrum products is available via email at info@spreadtrum.com.

New Enterprise Associates Participates in $20 Million Series D for Spreadtrum Communications [Baltimore Citybizlist. Oct 31, 2006]

Spreadtrum Communications Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of wireless chipsets, has secured $10 million of a $20 million Series D round, according to a regulatory filing. Return backers include Fortune Venture Group and New Enterprise Associates. The company has several offices in China. www.spreadtrum.com

About Spreadtrum
Spreadtrum Communications was founded in 2001 by a group of innovative entrepreneurs with determination to face any challenge in the future. Under Dr. Ping Wu’s leadership, Spreadtrum successfully set up offices in Silicon Valley and several different cities in China. It grew rapidly within the past a few years and became a raising star in the IC and wireless communications industry. Spreadtrum’s products became the choice of many Chinese and international clients. Spreadtrum focuses on the development and sales of the new generation wireless IC, provides fast-to-market, cost-effective and high-performance solutions for wireless terminal manufactures and design houses.
Our core competitive products are:
  • 2G/2.5G/3G baseband IC: High integration, high performance, great functionalities
  • Communication software: validity, stability, customizability
  • Wireless platform: differentiated value-added open platform, reduced development time, increased product competitive edge
  • Wireless module: Customizable, flexibility, high quality
Spreadtrum not only has complete wireless terminal core chip series and related software and platform solutions that cover from high-end to low-end handset markets, but also has successfully developed world’s first single TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS(3G/2.5G) dual mode baseband chip as well as world’s first single integrated multimedia GSM/GPRS baseband chip. By utilizing Spreadtrumer’ expertise and newest design methodology in the industry, Spreadtrum single chips solution possesses the characteristics of higher integration, smaller size, lower power consumption and higher performance and therefore greatly reduces system BOM cost. Spreadtrum is the first IC designs company to develop its own software protocols. Its open platform allows customers to customize their products in order to differentiate themselves among competitors. Spreadtrum provides its customers with warm-hearted support and fast response time to reduce their development cycle and shorten their time-to-market.

Spreadtrum Communications [InsideChips, 2006]

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., with most of its engineering operations in China, Spreadtrum Communications is developing chips for China’s large and rapidly growing domestic cellular market. The company is developing single-chip solutions for GSM/GPRS and TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS mobile devices, and has integrated all of the analog, digital and power-management functions as well as a full set of multimedia features and interfaces into the chips.

Founded only five years ago, Spreadtrum has already grown to 450 employees. CEO Ping Wu and CTO Datong Chen founded Spreadtrum with Renyong Fan (VP of operations) and Jin Ji in July 2001. The company raised $6.5 million in Series A funding at the time of founding, followed by a $20 million Series B round in Nov. 2002 and a $35 million Series C round in April 2004. The company has more than 30 investors, with the largest including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Fortunetech Investment Fund, Pacific Venture Group, Vertex, Legend Capital and HuaHong International.

Spreadtrum offers three chip products:
  • SC6600M GSM/GPRS baseband chip – In addition to baseband functionality, the 6600 also supports a number of functions typically implemented separately on different chips. These include support for a 1.3-megapixel digital camera with video recording and playback, 64-polyphonics with stereo sound, MP3 player, USB interface and USB removable memory. Analog I/F features include a wide-range RF interface and power management on chip.

    Spreadtrum began volume shipments of the SC6600 in June 2003, primarily to domestic handset makers including TCL, Ningbo Bird, Amoi Electronics, Hisense and Putian Capitel.

  • SC8800 Single-chip TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS dual-mode baseband chip – Powered by the CEVA-Teak DSP core, the SC8800 enables dual-mode 2G/3G phones that operate transparently over China’s TD-SCDMA and GSM networks. As with the SC6600, the chip integrates analog, digital and power management functions on a single chip.
  • SC6800 GSM/GPRS multimedia baseband IC – The SC6800 integrates an ARM9 processor and TeaKLite DSP, 5-megapixel camera controllers, auto-focus controllers, MPEG4 accelerator and MP3 player, and supports TV out and other multimedia application-processing functionalities.
Spreadtrum also offers a wireless module, the SM5100B, which incorporates the baseband chip, RF chipset, combo flash and software. Intended for applications such as wireless desktop phones, mobile phones, remote monitoring and remote meter reading, the module provides all the required functionality for full-featured GSM/GPRS terminals.
Spreadtrum provides its customers with IP and application software, and developed its own protocol stack software. The open platform enables customers to perform high-level development to implement their own IP and value-added features.
Compared with the Europe-initiated WCDMA and U.S.-backed CDMA 2000 3G standards, China’s homegrown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA, arrived late to the game. We even heard that Chinese telecom operators were reluctant to use TD-SCDMA due to that fact. Nevertheless, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry formally approved TD-SCDMA on Jan. 20, 2006, as the national technology standard for 3G mobile communications.
Spreadtrum projects that shipments of 3G mobile phones in China will grow to 9.5 million units by 2007, up from 3.3 million units in 2004. The Industrial Technology Information Services (ITIS), a unit of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), projects subscriptions for 3G services in China will increase from 15 million in 2006 to 80 million by 2008.
However, according to market research firm ABI Research, the establishment of a national 3G network will not greatly change the existing mobile landscape. The Chinese government will provide strong policy support to help TD-SCDMA operators gain time and establish a price lead over other 3G technologies, says ABI, but GSM will continue to be the dominant technology in China over the next five to eight years.
China is conducting its final TD-SCDMA trials in select cities between March and June. These latest trials follow three earlier rounds of tests, and should be the last before commercial use.
Spreadtrum will be competing with fellow TD-SCDMA chipmakers such as Commit (a joint venture involving Nokia, Texas Instruments, LG, Putian, DBTEL and Datang), Chongyou Information Technology, T3G (a joint venture of Datang, Philips and Samsung), Analog Devices and others.
The number of Chinese IC startups has been rapidly growing over the last few years, although many appear to have relatively simple technology, few people, little cash and fairly modest expectations. But a few – such as Spreadtrum – have set their sights higher and are establishing themselves as significant technology companies. We are impressed with Spreadtrum’s high level of integration in its products, as well as its ability to attract major investors and the early establishment of a global presence. We believe the company has a good chance for continued growth and success in China’s telecom market.

Spreadtrum Communications Announces Receipt of Acquisition Proposal [press release, June 21, 2013]

SHANGHAI, June 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRD; “Spreadtrum” or the “Company“), a leading fabless semiconductor provider in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards, today announced that its Board of Directors has received a preliminary non-binding proposal letter, dated June 20, 2013, from Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Unigroup“), an operating subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd., a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded byTsinghua University in China, pursuant to which Unigroup proposes to acquire the Company (the “Transaction“) for S$28.50 in cash per American Depositary Share (each American Depositary Share represents three ordinary shares of the Company).  A copy of the proposal letter is attached hereto as Appendix 1.

The Company’s Board of Directors is reviewing and evaluating Unigroup’s proposal and cautions the Company’s shareholders and others considering trading in its securities that the Board of Directors has just received the Unigroup proposal, and has not yet made any decisions with respect to the proposed Transaction, or the Company’s response to the proposed Transaction. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, that any agreement will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.

About Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.

Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRD; “Spreadtrum“) is a fabless semiconductor company that develops mobile chipset platforms for smartphones, feature phones and other consumer electronics products, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards. Spreadtrum’s solutions combine its highly integrated, power-efficient chipsets with customizable software and reference designs in a complete turnkey platform, enabling customers to achieve faster design cycles with a lower development cost. Spreadtrum’s customers include global and China-based manufacturers developing mobile products for consumers in China and emerging markets around the world. For more information, visit www.spreadtrum.com.

Appendix 1

Acquisition Proposal Letter

June 20, 2013
The Board of Directors
Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.
Spreadtrum Center, Building No. 1
Lane 2288, Zuchongzhi Road
Zhangjiang, Shanghai 201203
People’s Republic of China
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Tsinghua University, through its subsidiary Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Unigroup“) is pleased to submit this preliminary non-binding proposal to acquire Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (the “Company,” and such transaction the “Acquisition“).
We believe that our proposal as outlined below will provide a very attractive alternative to the Company’s shareholders.  Our proposal represents a premium of 20.10% to the Company’s closing price on June 19, 2013 and a premium of 44.3% to the volume-weighted average closing price during the last 30 trading days.
In addition to the premium that our proposal would deliver to Spreadtrum shareholders, we believe that an Acquisition by Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., which is majority owned by Tsinghua University, a central player in China’stechnology and R&D sectors would provide compelling strategic synergies and position the Company for additional value creation in key wireless communications markets in China and elsewhere going forward.
The terms and conditions upon which we are prepared to pursue the Acquisition are set forth below. We are confident in our ability to consummate an Acquisition as described in this letter.
1. Purchase Price. The consideration payable for each American Depositary Share of the Company (“ADS,” each representing three (3) ordinary shares) will be U.S. $28.50 in cash.
2. Financing. We may finance a portion of the aggregate purchase price with debt. Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd., our controlling shareholder, has provided us with a Letter of Support, dated June 20, 2013, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit A, pursuant to which Tsinghua Holdings has committed to guarantee full funding for any equity or debt financing that may be required for the Acquisition, as set forth therein.  For the avoidance of doubt, while we may seek to finance a portion of the acquisition with debt financing, Tsinghua Holdings has agreed to provide equity funding up to the total purchase price of $1.5 billion if satisfactory debt financing is not available.
3. Due Diligence. We will be in a position to commence our due diligence for the Acquisition immediately upon receiving access to the relevant materials.
4. Definitive Agreements. We are prepared to negotiate and finalize definitive agreements (the “Definitive Agreements“) concurrently with our due diligence review. This proposal is subject to execution of Definitive Agreements. These documents will provide for representations, warranties, covenants and conditions customary for transactions of this type.
5.  Confidentiality.  Other than the announcement of this offer letter, we are confident you will agree with us that we have a shared interest in proceeding in an otherwise confidential manner, unless otherwise required by law, until we have executed Definitive Agreements or terminated our discussions.
7. Further Information About Tsinghua Holdings and Tsinghua Unigroup. Unigroup is an operating subsidiary ofTsinghua Holdings,  a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University that is responsible for managing a substantial majority of Tsinghua University’s commercial assets.  As of December 31st, 2012, Tsinghua Holding’s total assets approximated 70.4 billion RMB and Tsinghua had EBITDA of approximately4.07 billion RMB and net income of approximately 1.45 billion RMB for fiscal 2012.  Tsinghua Holdings’s corporate credit rating is AA+ according to CCXI, the Chinese domestic JV partner of Moody’s and the leading credit rating agency in China.  Additional information about Tsinghua Holdings can be found at (http://www.thholding.com.cn/english/simpleindex.aspx).  Other shareholders include Beijing Jiankun Investment Group Co. Ltd. and Beijing Tourism Group. Unigroup’s business lines include high-technology generally, bio-technology, real estate and urban infrastructure construction. 
8.  No Binding Commitment. This letter constitutes only a preliminary indication of our interest, and does not constitute any binding commitment with respect to an Acquisition. Such a commitment will arise only upon execution of Definitive Agreements, and in such case will be on the terms provided in such documentation.
In closing, we would like to personally express our commitment to working together in bringing this Acquisition to a successful and timely conclusion.  We look forward to hearing from you regarding our proposal at your earlier convenience and kindly request that you notify us by June 28, 2013 should you desire to engage in further discussions about our proposal.
Very truly yours,
Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.
By: /s/ Zhao Weiguo
Name: Zhao, Weiguo
Title: Chairman and President

Exhibit A
TSINGHUA HOLDINGS LETTER
From:
Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd.
25F, Building A, S.P Tower
Tsinghua Science Park
Beijing 100084, P.R. China
                                                                                                 June 20th, 2013
To:
Chairman Zhao Weiguo  of Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.            
10/F, Unis Plaza, Tsinghua Science Park
Beijing, 100084, P.R. China
Subject:  Tsinghua Holdings Co. Letter of Support and Agreement to Guarantee Full Funding for the Acquisition ofSpreadtrum Communications, Inc. by Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.
Dear Mr. Zhao,
This letter (our “Letter of Support“) is to confirm our official endorsement and commitment to support Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (“You“) in your bid to acquire Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASD: SPRD) (the “Target” and such transaction, the “Project“) at the price of U.S. $28.5 per ADS for up to USD $1.5 billion (the “Support Amount“) and to guarantee any equity or debt financing that may be required for the Project.
As you know, we own and manage a substantial majority of the commercial assets of Tsinghua University, one of the most prestigious universities in the World. As of December 31st, 2012, our total assets approximated 70.4 billion RMB with 2012 EBITDA of approximately 4.07 billion RMB and 2012 net income of approximately 1.45 billion RMB. Tsinghua Holdings Co.’s corporate credit rating is AA+ according to CCXI, the Chinese domestic JV partner ofMoody’s and the leading credit rating agency in China.  Our corporate website contains further background information about Tsinghua Holdings, and can be found at (http://www.thholding.com.cn/english/simpleindex.aspx).
As the manager of the commercial affairs of the University, we are the parent company to Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd and own 51% of its outstanding capital shares.   We have officially approved the Project and have decided to fully support the Project to facilitate its rapid completion.  Although we have sufficient resources to fund the Project up to the full Support Amount from our own balance sheet, we understand that You may elect to utilize debt financing to fund a portion of the purchase price for the Target.  In any such case, we intend to assist You in obtaining any such debt financing on favourable terms.  In furtherance thereof, we will provide a corporate parent guarantee of such financing up to the Support Amount minus the amount of any equity contribution for the Project (and subject to any applicable government approvals).  In furtherance thereof, we will execute any bank or third-party guarantees and other related documents requested by you in form and substance reasonably acceptable to us and to any lender providing such funding.
At your discretion, this Letter of Support can be shared with parties with whom you are discussing the Project.
This Letter of Support and our agreement to provide a guarantee is a commitment of our broad financial enterprise, and credit support for purposes of the Project.
Yours faithfully,
Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd.
By: /s/ Xu Jinghong
Print Name: Xu, Jinghong
Title: Chairman of Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd.
To see a full copy of the signed version of these letters, click here:
http://www.prnasia.com/sa/attachment/2013/06/20130621172830287567.2 – Acquisition Offer Letter and Funding Support Letter.pdf
SOURCE Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.
Diana Jovin, ir@spreadtrum.com, +1 650-308-8148

Proper Oracle Java, Database and WebLogic support in Windows Azure including pay-per-use licensing via Microsoft + the same Oracle software supported on Microsoft Hyper-V as well

June 25, 2013 2:40 pm / 4 Comments on Proper Oracle Java, Database and WebLogic support in Windows Azure including pay-per-use licensing via Microsoft + the same Oracle software supported on Microsoft Hyper-V as well

While with the latter Hyper-V is gaining significant market advantage against the VMware vSphere it is even more important that Windows Azure is becoming a true open cloud computing platform, especially by fully supporting Java and Oracle developers (in addition to existing .NET and various web developers), and Oracle cloud offerings are also vastly extended, especially in the crucially important “pay-per-use” space as the cloud offerings of the Oracle software so far have been only:
– Oracle [Public] Cloud (Larry Ellison’s Oracle Cloud Announcement Highlights [Oracle YouTube channel, July 6, 2012] for when it was finally delivered and TechCast Live Introducing Oracle Public Cloud [Oracle YouTube channel, Dec 9, 2011] when it was pre-announced) which has application solutions in the cloud as well
– Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for Oracle available with “pay-per-use” (officially named “license included” by AWS, earlier named “on-demand hourly”) licensing since Q2 2011 (Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server came a year later), as well as Oracle Fusion Middleware (which includes the GlassFish Java application server and the WebLogic web application server), and Oracle Enterprise Manager licensed in the AWS Cloud

image

The essence according to Java and other Oracle software heads to the Microsoft cloud [Ars Technica, June 24, 2013]

Microsoft and Oracle may compete head to head in many ways within the database realm, but today the two companies performed the most sweeping cross-join ever as executives from the two companies announced a broad partnership around cloud computing. In a conference call this afternoon, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Oracle President Mark Hurd discussed a partnership between the companies that will bring Oracle platforms—including Java middleware—into Microsoft’s Azure cloud. 

Oracle has moved to certify and support its products, including Oracle WebLogic, the Oracle database, and Oracle Linux, for Azure and Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor. “At the highest level, this partnership extends Oracle’s support of Windows Server to also include Windows Hyper-V and Windows Azure as supported platforms,” Ballmer said.

Oracle will provide full license mobility, Ballmer added, so that customers can move existing Oracle software licenses from on-premises physical or virtual servers to virtual servers on Hyper-V and in the Azure cloud. “There’s an immediate benefit for our customers,” he said. Support of Oracle’s database and application server products, and of Oracle Linux, is available immediately starting today.

Microsoft also agreed to license Oracle’s enterprise Java run-time and APIs and make Java “a first class runtime in Windows Azure, fully licensed and fully supported by Oracle” according to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s president of Microsoft Corporation’s Server and Tools Business. Previously, Microsoft offered open Java SDKs, he said. “Now we have the licensed [Oracle] Java stack, plus the [Oracle] middleware stack, available. We think it makes Java more first class within Azure.”

Hurd said that in addition to allowing existing licenses to be moved into the Azure cloud, Microsoft would provide a mechanism to obtain licenses on demand “for those who don’t have licenses for Oracle or Java.” Nadella emphasized that Microsoft would “make it easier to spin up Oracle software in Azure with pay-as-you-go licenses,” including pre-built Oracle Linux images that can be deployed in Azure as server instances.

Oracle has been pursuing its own cloud strategy, but Hurd said he saw “nothing but good” coming from a partnership with Microsoft. “I think it just makes sense for us to continue to improve our capabilities but also form partnerships like this,” he said. “Java is the most popular development platform in the world. The fact that more people will get access to our IP is favorable.”

A general business media opinion:
Rivals Microsoft, Oracle bonding in the cloud [The Seattle Times, June 24, 2013]

The partnership looks to be a good move for both companies, while being bad for mutual competitor VMware, said veteran Microsoft and Oracle analyst Rick Sherlund, of investment bank Nomura.

Back in the day, Microsoft and Oracle were bitter rivals, competing over providing database and server products and trading barbs during the U.S. government’s antitrust suit against Microsoft in the 1990s.

Now they’re holding hands and looking at a future together.

Microsoft and Oracle announced Monday a cloud partnership in which customers will be able to run Oracle software (including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server) on Microsoft’s Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure. Oracle will provide certification and full support.

Oracle Linux will also be made available to Windows Azure customers.

…

“I think they need each other,” Sherlund said. “They’re cooperating in areas that are mutually beneficial.”

Microsoft is getting Oracle’s support for Hyper-V, Microsoft’s hypervisor technology, which allows companies to run virtual servers. That’s important because Hyper-V competes against VMware, which is dominant in the server virtualization market. And many of the businesses that would be interested in such technology already use some Oracle software.

“It’s an advantage for Microsoft to be able to say: ‘All this Oracle stuff runs on Hyper-V,’ ” said Sherlund, who added that Oracle does not support VMware’s vSphere.

The move likely also allows Microsoft to say it’s being open with its Azure platform.

“That’s the rap you have against Microsoft: That it’s all the Microsoft platform,” Sherlund said. “If you’re in the cloud, it’s good that you’re supporting other platforms.”

Oracle, meanwhile, has traditionally delivered its software to its customers’ own premises. Now that it’s focusing more on delivering its software as services, it’s “motivated to make sure that [the services are] available on a lot of different cloud platforms,” Sherlund said. “So that’s good for Oracle.”

…

… these days, both companies are battling newer competition from the likes of VMware and Seattle-based Amazon.com.

Ballmer and Oracle President Mark Hurd said during the conference call after Monday’s announcement that their two companies would continue to compete.

But, Ballmer said, “the relationship between the two companies has evolved … in a very positive and constructive manner on a number of fronts.”

Hurd said, “The cloud is the tipping point that made this all happen.”

Hurd said Oracle would continue to offer its own public, private and hybrid platforms. But the fact that Java will be accessible to programmers who work in Windows Azure “is a good thing for us. … The fact that more people get access to our IP is favorable,” he said. “It’s good for our customers and therefore good for Oracle.”

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison had also said last week that the company would be announcing partnerships with Salesforce.com and NetSuite.

And an ICT analyst opinion: ORACLE EMBRACING THE BROADER CLOUD LANDSCAPE [James Staten on Forrester blogs, June 24, 2013]

It’s easy to accuse Oracle of trying to lock up its customers, as nearly all its marketing focuses on how Oracle on Oracle (on Oracle) delivers the best everything, but today Ellison’s company and Microsoft signed a joint partnership that empowers customer choice and ultimately will improve Oracle’s relevance in the cloud world. 

The Redwood Shores, California software giant signed a key partnership with Microsoft that endorses Oracle on Hyper-V and Windows Azure, which included not just bring-your-own licenses but pay-per-use pricing options. The deal came as part of a Java licensing agreement by Microsoft for Windows Azure, which should help Redmond increase the appeal of its public cloud to a broader developer audience. Forrester’s Forrsights Developer Survey Q1 2013 shows that Java and .Net are the #2 and #3 languages used by cloud developers (HTML/Javascript is #1). The Java license does not extend to Microsoft’s other products, BTW. 

This deal gives Microsoft clear competitive advantages against two of its top rivals as well. It strengthens Hyper-V against VMware vSphere, as Oracle software is only supported on OracleVM and Hyper-V today. It gives Windows Azure near equal position against Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the cloud platform wars, as the fully licensed support covers all Oracle software (customers bring their own licenses), and pay-per-use licenses will be resold by Microsoft for WebLogic Server, Oracle Linux, and the Oracle database. AWS has a similar support relationship with Oracle and resells the middleware, database, and Oracle Enterprise Manager, plus offers RDS for Oracle, a managed database service.  

Bring your own license terms aren’t ideal in the per-hour world of cloud platforms, so the pay-per-use licensing arrangements are key to Oracle’s cloud relevance. While this licensing model is limited today, it opens the door to a more holistic move by Oracle down the line. Certainly Oracle would prefer that customers build and deploy their own Fusion applications on the Oracle Public Cloud, but the company is wisely acknowledging the market momentum behind AWS and Windows Azure and ensuring Oracle presence where its customers are going. These moves are also necessary to combat the widespread use of open source alternatives to Oracle’s middleware and database products on these new deployment platforms. 

While we can all argue about Oracle’s statements made in last week’s quarterly earnings call about being the biggest cloud company or having $1B in cloud revenue, it is clearly no longer up for debate as to whether Oracle is embracing the move to cloud. The company is clearly making key moves to cloud-enable its portfolio. Combine today’s moves with its SaaS acquisitions, investments in cloud companies and its own platform as a service, and the picture clearly emerges of a company moving aggressively into cloud.  

I guess CEO Ellison no longer feels cloud is yesterday’s business as usual.

Microsoft and Oracle announce enterprise partnership [joint press release, June 24, 2013]

Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. today announced a partnership that will enable customers to run Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure. Customers will be able to deploy Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure and receive full support from Oracle. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
As part of this partnership, Oracle will certify and support Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure. Microsoft will also offer Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server to Windows Azure customers, and Oracle will make Oracle Linux available to Windows Azure customers.
Java developers, IT professionals and businesses will benefit from the flexibility to deploy fully supported Oracle software to Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure.
“Microsoft is deeply committed to giving businesses what they need, and clearly that is the ability to run enterprise workloads in private clouds, public clouds and, increasingly, across both,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Now our customers will be able to take advantage of the flexibility our unique hybrid cloud solutions offer for their Oracle applications, middleware and databases, just like they have been able to do on Windows Server for years.”
“Our customers’ IT environments are changing rapidly to meet the dynamic nature of the world today,” said Oracle President Mark Hurd. “At Oracle, we are committed to providing greater choice and flexibility to customers by providing multiple deployment options for our software, including on-premises, as well as public, private, and hybrid clouds. This collaboration with Microsoft extends our partnership and is important for the benefit of our customers.”
Additional information about support and the licensing mobility changes that went into effect today is available on Oracle’s blog at https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud/entry/oracle_and_microsoft_join_forces.

Oracle and Microsoft Expand Choice and Flexibility in Deploying Oracle Software in the Cloud [Oracle Cloud Solutions blog, June 24, 2013]

Oracle and Microsoft have entered into a new partnership that will help customers embrace cloud computing by providing greater choice and flexibility in how to deploy Oracle software.

Here are the key elements of the partnership:

  • Effective today, our customers can run supported Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure
  • Effective today, Oracle provides license mobility for customers who want to run Oracle software on Windows Azure
  • Microsoft will add Infrastructure Services instances with popular configurations of Oracle software including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server to the Windows Azure image gallery
  • Microsoft will offer fully licensed and supported Java in Windows Azure
  • Oracle will offer Oracle Linux, with a variety of Oracle software, as preconfigured instances on Windows Azure

Oracle’s strategy and commitment is to support multiple platforms, and Microsoft Windows has long been an important supported platform. Oracle is now extending that support to Windows Server Hyper-V and Window Azure by providing certification and support for Oracle applications, middleware, database, Java and Oracle Linux on Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure. As of today, customers can deploy Oracle software on Microsoft private clouds and Windows Azure, as well as Oracle private and public clouds and other supported cloud environments.

For information related to software licensing in Windows Azure, see Licensing Oracle Software in the Cloud Computing Environment.

Also, Oracle Support policies as they apply to Oracle software running in Windows Azure or on Windows Server Hyper-V are covered in two My Oracle Support (MOS) notes which are shown below:

MOS Note 1563794.1 Certified Software on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V – NEW

…

MOS Note 417770.1 Oracle Linux Support Policies for Virtualization and Emulation – UPDATED

…

Explanation for that is in Partners in the enterprise cloud [Satya Nadella on the The Official Microsoft Blog, June 24, 2013]

As longtime competitors, partners and industry leaders, Microsoft and Oracle have worked with enterprise customers to address business and technology needs for over 20 years. Many customers rely on Microsoft infrastructure to run mission-critical Oracle software and have for over a decade. Today, we are together extending our work to cover private cloud and public cloud through a new strategic partnership between Microsoft and Oracle. This partnership will help customers embrace cloud computing by improving flexibility and choice while also preserving the first-class support that these workloads demand.
As part of this partnership Oracle will certify and support Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure. That means customers who have long enjoyed the ability to run Oracle software on Windows Server can run that same software on Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure and take advantage of our enterprise grade virtualization platform and public cloud. Oracle customers also benefit from the ability to run their Oracle software licenses in Windows Azure with new license mobility. Customers can enjoy the support and license mobility benefits, starting today.
In the near future, we will add Infrastructure Services instances with preconfigured versions of Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server for customers who do not have Oracle licenses. Also, Oracle will enable customers to obtain and launch Oracle Linux images on Windows Azure.
We’ll also work together to add properly licensed, and fully supported Java into Windows Azure – improving flexibility and choice for millions of Java developers and their applications. Windows Azure is, and will continue to be, committed to supporting open source development languages and frameworks, and after today’s news, I hope the strength of our commitment in this area is clear.
The cloud computing era – or, as I like to call it, the enterprise cloud era – calls for bold, new thinking. It requires companies to rethink what they build, to rethink how they operate and to rethink whom they partner with. We are doing that by being “cloud first” in everything we do. From our vision of a Cloud OS – a consistent platform spanning our customer’s private clouds, service provider clouds and Windows Azure – to the way we partner to ensure that the applications our customers use run, fully supported, in those clouds.
We look forward to working with Oracle to help our customers realize this partnership’s immediate, and future, benefits. And we look forward to providing our customers with the increased flexibility and choice that comes from providing thousands of Oracle customers, and millions of Oracle developers, access to Microsoft’s enterprise grade public and private clouds. It’s a bold partnership for a bold new enterprise era.

IMPORTANT: for Java developers this strategic partnership will be really important when the latest versions will be covered on Windows Azure, see:
– Java EE 7 / GlassFish 4.0 Launch Coverage [Oracle’s The Aquarium blog, Jan 12, 2013]

Java EE 7, the standard in community-driven enterprise software, is now available. Back in April, Java EE 7 completed the JCP final approval ballot.  Today, developers can learn all about Java EE 7 during the Java EE 7 Live Web Event, and get some hands-on experience with the arrival of the Java EE 7 SDK and GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 4.0.  Of course, others have quite a bit to say about Java EE 7 as well, and this is just for starters:

– Java EE 7 SDK and GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 4.0 Now Available [Arun Gupta, Miles to go … weblog among Oracle technical blogs, June 12, 2013]

Java EE 7 (JSR 342) is now final!

I’ve delivered numerous talks on Java EE 7 and related technologies all around the world for past several months. I’m loaded with excitement to share that the Java EE 7 platform specification and implementation is now in the records.

The platform has three major themes:

image

  • Deliver HTML5 Dynamic Scalable Applications
    • Reduce response time with low latency data exchange using WebSocket
    • Simplify data parsing for portable applications with standard JSON support
    • Deliver asynchronous, scalable, high performance RESTful Service
  • Increase Developer Productivity
    • Simplify application architecture with a cohesive integrated platform
    • Increase efficiency with reduced boiler-plate code and broader use of annotations
    • Enhance application portability with standard RESTful web service client support
  • Meet the most demanding enterprise requirements
    • Break down batch jobs into manageable chunks for uninterrupted OLTP performance
    • Easily define multithreaded concurrent tasks for improved scalability
    • Deliver transactional applications with choice and flexibility

This “pancake” diagram of the major components helps understand how the components work with each other to provide a complete, comprehensive, and integrated stack for building your enterprise and web applications. The newly added components are highlighted in the orange color:

image

In this highly transparent and participatory effort, there were 14 active JSRs:

  • 342: Java EE 7 Platform
  • 338: Java API for RESTful Web Services 2.0
  • 339: Java Persistence API 2.1
  • 340: Servlet 3.1
  • 341: Expression Language 3.0
  • 343: Java Message Service 2.0
  • 344: JavaServer Faces 2.2
  • 345: Enteprise JavaBeans 3.2
  • 346: Contexts and Dependency Injection 1.1
  • 349: Bean Validation 1.1
  • 352: Batch Applications for the Java Platform 1.0
  • 353: Java API for JSON Processing 1.0
  • 356: Java API for WebSocket 1.0
  • 236: Concurrency Utilities for Java EE 1.0

The newly added components are highlighted in bold.

And 9 Maintenance Release JSRs:

  • 250: Common Annotations 1.2
  • 322: Connector Architecture 1.7
  • 907: Java Transaction API 1.2
  • 196: Java Authentication Services for Provider Interface for Containers
  • 115: Java Authorization for Contract for Containers
  • 919: JavaMail 1.5
  • 318: Interceptors 1.2
  • 109: Web Services 1.4
  • 245: JavaServer Pages 2.3

Ready to get rolling ?

Binaries

Tools

Docs

A few articles have already been published on OTN:

And more are coming!

This blog has also published several TOTD on Java EE 7:

All the JSRs have been covered in the Java Spotlight podcast:

The latest issue of Java Magazine is also loaded with tons of Java EE 7 content:

image

Media coverage has started showing as well …

And you can track lot more here.
You can hear the latest and greatest on Java EE 7 by watching replays from the launch webinar:

image

This webinar consists of:

  • Strategy Keynote
  • Technical Keynote
  • 16 Technical Breakouts with JSR Specification Leads
  • Customer, partner, and community testimonials
  • And much more

Do you feel enabled and empowered to start building Java EE 7 applications ?
Just download Java EE 7 SDK that contains GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 4.0, tutorial, samples, documentation and much more.
Enjoy!

Previous situation:

image
From Oracle Database Cloud Service [Oracle presentation, Feb 15, 2013]

as well as: New Java Resources for Windows Azure! [Windows Azure blog, July 31, 2012]

… Make the Windows Azure Java Developer Center your first stop for details about developing and deploying Java applications on Windows Azure. We continue to add content to that site, and we’ll describe some of the recent additions in this blog.

Using Virtual Machines for your Java Solutions

We rolled out Windows Azure Virtual Machines as a preview service last month; if you’d like to see how to use Virtual Machines for your Java solutions, check out these new Java tutorials. …

New in Access Control

Included in the June 2012 Windows Azure release is an update to the Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java (by Microsoft Open Technologies). …

The Java part of this partnership is dating back to GlassFish and Java EE 6 everywhere, even in the Azure cloud! [Oracle’s The Aquarium blog, Jan 18, 2011]

imageMicrosoft’s technical architect David Chou has a detailed blog entry on how to run a recent GlassFish 3.1 build on the Microsoft Azure Platform (wikipedia). The article builds on this other recent blog entry on running Java applications in Azure and adds GlassFish-specific instructions.

In Azure terminology, the article discusses setting up a Worker Role using Visual Studio, reserving Ports, setting up a Startup Task (for the JVM), and configuring the Service, GlassFish in this case. This uses Windows Server 2008 (a GlassFish supported platform) and a zip install of GlassFish.

It’s early days (need best practices on working around some of the cloud-inherent limitations) but with this support of GlassFish, the Azure platform now has full support for Java EE 6!

which then was followed with a Java wishlist for Windows Azure [Arun Gupta, Miles to go … weblog among Oracle technical blogs, Feb 11, 2011]

TOTD #155 explains how to run GlassFish in Windows Azure. It works but as evident from the blog, its not easy and intuitive. It uses Worker Role to install JDK and GlassFish but the concepts used are nothing specific to Java. Microsoft has released Azure SDK for Java and AppFabric SDK for Java which is a good start but there are a few key elements missing IMHO. These may be known issues but I thought of listing them here while my memory is fresh 🙂

Here is my wish list to make Java a better on Windows Azure:

  1. Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse has “PHP Development Toolkit” and “Azure SDK for Java” but no tooling from the Java perspective. I cannot build a Java/Java EE project and say “Go Deploy it to Azure” and then Eclipse + Azure do the magic and provide me with a URL of the deployed project.
  2. Why do I need to configure IIS on my local Visual Studio development for deploying a Java project ?
  3. Why do I have to explicitly upload my JDK to Azure Storage ? I’d love to specify an element in the “ServiceConfiguration” or where ever appropriate which should take care of installing JDK for me in the provisioned instance. And also set JAVA_HOME for me.
  4. Allow to leverage clustering capabilities of application servers such as GlassFish. This will also provide session-failover capabilities on Azure 🙂
  5. Sticky session load balancing.
  6. If Windows VM crashes for some reason then App Fabric restarts it which is good. But I’d like my Java processes to be monitored and restarted if they go kaput. And accordingly Load Balancer switches to the next available process in the cluster.
  7. Visual Studio tooling is nice but allow me to automate/script the deployment of project to Azure.
  8. Just like Web, Worker, and VM role – how about a Java role ?
  9. And since this is a wishlist, NetBeans is the best IDE for Java EE 6 development. Why not have a NetBeans plugin for Azure ?
  10. A better integration with Java EE APIs and there are several of them – JPA, Servlets, EJB, JAX-RS, JMS, etc.
  11. The “happy scenario” where every thing works as expected is fine is good but that rarely happens in software development. The availabilty of debugging information is pretty minimal during the “not so happy scenario”. Visual Studio should show more information if the processes started during “Launch.ps1” cannot start correctly for some reason.

And I’m not even talking about management, monitoring, adminstration, logging etc.

Thank you Microsoft for a good start with Java on Azure but its pretty basic right now and needs work. I’ll continue my exploration!

Christmas is coming later this year … and I’ll be waiting 🙂

See also:

Nokia becoming the next Samsung from its new Vietnamese manufacturing base?

June 24, 2013 1:57 pm / 3 Comments on Nokia becoming the next Samsung from its new Vietnamese manufacturing base?

Update: Microsoft renames Nokia Vietnam Company [News VietNamNet, Dec 20, 2014]: Nokia (Vietnam) Limited Liability Company was renamed Microsoft Mobile (Vietnam) Limited Liability Company, according to an official decision of Microsoft Vietnam released on December 18.

Microsoft had earlier changed the name of the Nokia Lumia cell phone line to Microsoft Lumia. The first mobile phone line with the Microsoft brand was sold at the end of November. However, Microsoft and its retail stores will continue to sell old phone lines with the Nokia Lumia brand.

Nokia officially inaugurated its factory in the northern province of Bac Ninh in October 2013. Since Microsoft’s takeover in April, Nokia has produced nearly 74 million mobile phones by the end of November.

The factory is considered to be Microsoft’s main global supplier after the American software giant transferred its smartphone production lines from China and Mexico to Viet Nam in August 2014.

Microsoft Mobile Vietnam has exported more than five million Lumia mobile phones to the rest of the world thus far. The factory currently has more than 10,000 employees, which include highly skilled engineers.

Samsung has been the pioneer of exploitation of much cheaper manufacturing opportunity in Vietnam. While its production capacity in 2009 was 1.5 million units per month there (from October), it increased to 6 million per month by the end of 2010. Now it is standing at 20 million per month with total of 240 million this year out of the planned total of 510 million.

Relative to that Nokia’s new plant was launched with 5 million units per month capacity for 2013 which could be raised to 15 million units per month by the end of 2014 as the earliest, or by the end of 2018 as the latest.

After loosing the overall phone marketshare this year to Samsung it is now Nokia’s turn to play the catch-up game in manufacturing efficiency and economy like Samsung was launching a similar game against Nokia in 2010. To understand Nokia’s opportunities in this regard one must understand the circumstances which I will explain via the headlines of collected publications you can read further on in detail:
– “Nokia will be merged into another company, 40 per cent probability”[Ilta-Sanomat, June 20, 2013]
– First Nokia exports dial in a new manufacturing era [Vietnam Investment Review, June 10, 2013]
– Nokia’s Vietnam factory opens in Hanoi City [VMPoweruser, April 17, 2013]
– Nokia – Samsung the battle of the two tigers [News VietNamNet, May 18, 2013]
– Unboxing the cheapest Nokia phone manufacturered in Vietnam [Vietnam News World Vietbao.vn, June 21, 2013]
– Samsung Secures Tax Breaks for Vietnam Handset Factory [cellular-news, June 20, 2013]
– Work begins on Samsung’s largest cell phone factory [VietNam News, March 26, 2013]
– Samsung aims to sell 510 million phones [The Korea Times, Dec 23, 2012]
– Samsung Vietnam SEV-Project [SAMOO Architects & ENGINEERS, 2011]
– Samsung Boosting Handset Output in China to Beat Nokia [The Korea Times, March 22, 2010]
– Dial Vietnam For Cheap Labor [The Nikkei Asian Review June 12 edition, 2013]
– Why Vietnam is the new China for the global electronics giants[whathifi.com, Feb 19, 2013]

Let’s start with the news that “Nokia will be merged into another company, 40 per cent probability” [Ilta-Sanomat, June 20, 2013] as translated by Google and Bing with manual edits

Nokia is combined with another company 40 percent chance in the next two years, estimates research firm Strategy Analytics.
Rumors of Nokia’s sales to another company have been moving for a few years already. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, the probability of combining Nokia with another company in the next two years is 40 per cent.
– Nokia has an impressive distribution network and an extensive patent portfolio, which many companies would benefit from, according to [Strategy Analytics] director Neil Mawston assessment.
Mawston says Samsung, LG, Huawei, Microsoft, Google and Cisco, for example, could afford to buy Nokia, and they also benefit from the sales of the company.
Nokia this week contacted Huawei and Microsoft. On Tuesday, the newspaper Financial Times reported that Huawei would be considering the purchase of Nokia. However, the company denied the allegations later, according to the news agency Reuters.
– I think it is very unlikely that Huawei would be acquiring Nokia at the moment, estimates Director Ben Wood of CCS Insight research company.
According to him, Huawei might be interested in the future in some of Nokia’s operations, if Nokia’s business deteriorate dramatically. In addition, he believes that the Chinese manufacturer would have major legal obstacles if it is going to buy a Nokia.
On Thursday, in turn, the newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that Nokia and Microsoft negotiated in mid-June, the company store, where Microsoft would buy Nokia’s mobile phone business.
According to the newspaper the sales of the company got bogged down due to the weak market outlook for  Nokia, among other things.

We have to have in our mind the other news that First Nokia exports dial in a new manufacturing era [Vietnam Investment Review, June 10, 2013]

image
Nokia has exported the first volume of made-in-Vietnam mobile phones, as the Finnish company plans to expand its investment and operations in Vietnam.
Ivan Herd, general director of Nokia (Vietnam) LLC, told VIR that the handset maker has started production at its $302 million factory in Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Bac Ninh province, about 20 kilometres from Hanoi, after one year of construction.
Although some of the factory’s facilities remain at construction process and the factory is expected to be launched sometimes in August or September, Herd said “we hope Nokia Vietnam would become one of the largest factories of Nokia in the world”, implying a possibility to further expand investment in Vietnam. He declined to give further details.
Near the factory, Nokia’s rival – Samsung Electronics – has been aggressively expanding its mobile phone manufacturing, raising total investment from $670 million to $1.5 billion. The South Korean firm is also turning Vietnam into one of its biggest manufacturing hubs in the world, starting construction on another $2 billion manufacturing complex in Thai Nguyen province in March.
The first shipment from Nokia factory marks a milestone as for the first time a Nokia handset made in Vietnam has been exported globally.
“We will start with our Nokia 105, and as our capabilities improve, we will move on to other more difficult products,” said Herd.
“Our factory in Vietnam will be part of the global supply network so the expectation is that a maximum 5 per cent of our products will be exported to domestic market,” he said.
Nokia received investment certificate for this factory in late 2011 and the new factory is expected to attract more electronic component suppliers to Vietnam.
So far, Nokia has recruited over 300 employees for this factory. “By the end this year, our employee number will be thousands,” said Herd.
“Nokia does not focus on one cost element but total supply chain costs, infrastructure, our extended supply chain and customer locations. These are the main reasons we moved to Vietnam,” he said.

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In the very first news about Nokia’s Vietnam factory opens in Hanoi City [VMPoweruser, April 17, 2013] we had more information as well:

Nokia Vietnam has indicated that their new Hanoi City factory, which broke ground last year, is now up and running, posting pictures of the facility and staff on their Facebook page.

The factory is located in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Bac Ninh, a province in the north of the country, and may employ up to 10,000 workers by 2014, churning out 45 million handsets per quarter [180 million yearly].

The handsets are predominately expected to be low-end, but hopefully it will increase Nokia’s capacity overall, and help eliminate those annoying supply issues which has dogged Nokia’s popular Windows Phone smartphones recently

Later the Vietnamese were assessing Nokia – Samsung the battle of the two tigers [News VietNamNet, May 18, 2013] as follows:

VietNamNet Bridge – Finnish Nokia still holds the biggest mobile phone market share in Vietnam. However, its Number 1 position has been shaken with the rise of Samsung.
Nokia plans to put the factory in the Vietnam – Singapore Industrial Zone in Bac Ninh province into operation in June 2013, when it would churn out 30 million products. The productivity would increase gradually to 180 million products by 2018.
Of the total investment capital of $302 million, $67 million would be disbursed in 2013, while the figure would be $100 million in 2014 and $102 million in 2015.
In order to attract Nokia to Vietnam, the country has to offer a lot of investment incentives, including the preferential corporate income tax of 10 percent for the first 15 years of the production, and the corporate income tax exemption for the first 4 years and the 50 percent tax reduction in the next 9 years.
With the investment capital of over $300 million in total, Nokia is hoped to generate 10,000 workers.
The fact that Nokia has closed down some of its factories in the world, but sets up a new factory in Vietnam can show the attractiveness of the Vietnamese market. This might also be the reason for Samsung to develop its projects in Vietnam.
According to GFK, a market survey firm, Nokia held 54 percent of the market share in 2011 and 56 percent in 2012. However, if considering the value, the giant has made a step back with the market value decreasing from 52.6 percent in 2011 to 45 percent in 2012.
The decline of Nokia has brought the golden opportunities to other manufacturers, including Samsung, to arise.
In 2011, Samsung only accounted for 15 percent of the total mobile phone products consumed in the market. The figure rose to 23 percent in 2012. However, if considering the value, Samsung’s share market increase is sharper, from 17.8 percent to 30.6 percent.
Especially, in the last months of 2012, Samsung, while accounting for 21 percent of the market share only, had its products’ value accounting for 34 percent of the total market value.
It seems that Samsung has left the popular mobile phone market segment opened, while concentrating on smart phones. The popular mobile market segment is believed to be less profitable than the smart phone segment. The South Korean manufacturer targets the high income earners who like using fashionable products.
Also according to GFK, in terms of quantity, in the popular mobile phone market, Nokia’s market share increased from 55.9 percent in 2011 to 65.5 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung’s has been hovering around 15.1-15.3 percent.
In the smart phone market segment, Samsung’s market share has been expanding steadily from 22.7 percent in 2011 to 46 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, Nokia’s decreased sharply from 46.6 percent in 2011 to 24.2 percent in 2012.
The fact that PSD, which was a distributor of Nokia’s products in Vietnam with 45 percent of market share, said goodbye to Nokia and joined hands with Samsung after that, is an evidence showing that it’s very difficult to obtain the market, but it’s even more difficult to retain it.
PSD began distributing Nokia’s products in mid 2007, when there were three other Nokia product distributors already, including FPT.
In 2009, the amount of Nokia phones distributed by PSD and FPT was equal. Both of them distributed the number of products accounting for 95 percent of the total Nokia’s products sold in Vietnam.
As such, the parting of PSD would be the bad news for Nokia when implementing its business plans in the Vietnamese market.
NCDT

And lately we had the first product review in Unboxing the cheapest Nokia phone manufactured in Vietnam [Vietnam News World Vietbao.vn, June 21, 2013] as translated by Google

Cheap phone Nokia 105 were present at the shelves nationwide priced at 450,000 [$21.4]. This is the first phone to be manufactured in the factory of Nokia Vietnam Bac Ninh.
imageBoxes for Nokia 105 – Nokia’s first phone manufactured in Vietnam.
Right on the box of the product, you will easily see the words: “the first Nokia phone made in Vietnam”. We can say that this product line is the first important step of the Nokia factory Vietnam to continue rolling out other products in the future, ensuring good price, suitable for Vietnamese consumers .
Nokia 105 has candybar design with a lightweight of 70 grams, but the machine is quite thick with dimensions of 14.3 mm. The cover of the Nokia 105 good plastic material used to manufacture, ensuring that the machine works well when accidentally falling or collision.
Nokia equip 1.45 inch color display with resolution of 128 x 128 pixels and supports 65,000 colors. Capacity 800 mAh battery provides talk time up to 12 hours and 30 minutes. At the same time, the machine also supports the practical functionality for everyday life, like the popular phones like its previous FM Radio and flashlight.
Currently Nokia 105 to be sold at the price of 450,000 Vietnam dong [$21.4].
imageNokia 105 comes just charger.
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Front with 1.45 inch color screen and buttons with rubber material.
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It has a thickness of 14.3 mm.
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The back break with the Nokia logo.
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Nokia 105 integrated flashlight as the phone lines of its previous high.
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Bottom edge is a microphone.
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SIM slot.
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Screen interface.
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Menu interface.
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Playing games on the Nokia 105.
Vietbao.vn (According Zing News)

At the same time we had the news that Samsung Secures Tax Breaks for Vietnam Handset Factory [cellular-news, June 20, 2013] which is showing quite well how Samsung has about 3 years of advantage in terms of exploiting the Vietnamese manufacturing capability:

Samsung Electronics has secured a range of tax breaks for its new factories being constructed in Northern Vietnam.

The company’s US$2 billion cellphone and tablet assembly plant won’t have to pay tax for the first four years of operation and will get a 50 percent break for the next 12 years.

The company also plans three more factories, including a US$1.2 billion investment in a semiconductor facility and each of those will see their land rent reduced by half.

The four factories are based in the Yen Binh Industrial Zone in Pho Yen District, and the first — the handset factory is due to start production by the end of this year.

Samsung’s exports from Vietnam last year were worth $12.7 billion, more than 11 percent of the country’s total exports — although it also imported around US$11.3 billion of components. The company employs around 24,000 staff in the country.

Vietnam is increasingly seen as an alternative to China, where rising wages along the coastal regions and increased international pressure on workers conditions are making the area less appealing for future investment.

And Work begins on Samsung’s largest cell phone factory [VietNam News, March 26, 2013]

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THAI NGUYEN (VNS)— Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday applauded Samsung’s decision to expand operations in Viet Nam, adding that it would contribute to the strategic partnership between Viet Nam and South Korea.
He was attending the Samsung Group’s ground-breaking event for the construction of a US$3.2 billion high-tech complex in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.
The complex, which will house Samsung’s largest mobile phone factory, is expected to provide jobs for thousands of local people.
It will also contribute tens of billions of US dollars to the country’s annual export turnover, while boosting the development of the electronics support industry in the northern region of Viet Nam.
Dung spoke highly of South Korean businesses’ operation in Viet Nam and pledged to create favourable conditions for them and other foreign businesses to do business in the country on the basis of friendship, co-operation and equality.
The same day, the Prime Minister held a working session with provincial leaders where he urged Thai Nguyen Province to use its potential and advantages in agro-forestry and industry.
Dung affirmed the Government’s policy of creating the best possible conditions for Thai Nguyen to develop into an economic, political, cultural and educational centre in the northern midland and mountainous region.
On the province’s famous tea trees, the leader said Thai Nguyen should develop industrial-scale processing for the product, which was key for the locality’s poverty reduction.
He also urged Thai Nguyen to improve the investment environment, reforming administrative procedures and attracting high-tech projects.
Last year, the province recorded an economic growth of 7.2 per cent, generated jobs for 22,600 people and reduced the percentage of poor households by 2.93 per cent.
Particularly, tea trees have been a lifeline for poor families in the province with the crop growing on a total area of 18,500 hectares. — VNS

Samsung aims to sell 510 million phones [The Korea Times, Dec 23, 2012]

GUMI, North Gyeongsang Province – Samsung Electronics, one half of the global duopoly on smartphones, claims 2013 will be the year when it separates itself from bitter rival Apple.

The Korean technology giant is the world’s largest maker of mobile phones and aims to ship a record 510 million handsets next year.
That would be a 20 percent increase from the estimated 420 million devices this year, according to sources from the company and its suppliers. It shipped around 288 million handsets through the first nine months of the year and is expecting a global Christmas bump.
”Of the 510 million handsets it plans to sell, 390 million are slated as smartphones and 120 million, feature and budget phones,’’ according to an executive from one of Samsung’s key suppliers.
Aside of its Galaxy smartphones and tablets, which have emerged as the main competitors to Apple’s iPhones and iPads, Samsung is planning to release a lineup of devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 mobile operating system. It will also push products that support TIZEN software, which Samsung jointly developed with semiconductor rival Intel.
”There are some possibilities that smartphone demand will slow in general. But we are seeing new demand for devices using Long Term Evolution (LTE),’’ said Kim Hyun-joon, an executive at Samsung’s telecommunications division.
Another source said that Samsung expects to manufacture 240 million devices at its Vietnamese factory, 170 million in China and 20 million in India to complement the 40 million to be produced in its Korean factory in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.
In order to effectively save costs on manufacturing, logistics and delivery time, Samsung will spend $2.2 billion on its handset factories in the Vietnamese towns of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen by 2020 to boost output.
”By offering better pricing to consumers in developing nations, we will find new growth. This will also enable consumers in developed nations like North America and Europe to buy our LTE devices at more affordable prices,’’ said a Samsung official.
The plan contrasts a previous outlook by leading market researcher Gartner, that predicted the Korean firm to sell between 250 million and 300 million smartphones next year. In 2011, Samsung sold 97.4 million smartphones, up from 23.9 million and 0.6 million in 2010 and 2009, respectively.
Analysis from HIS iSuppli, another research firm, noted that Samsung is set to seize the global mobile handset market’s top ranking this year, ending the 14-year reign of Nokia.
The report projects Samsung will account for 29 percent of worldwide mobile shipments, up from 24 percent in 2011, while Nokia’s share will drop to 24 percent, down from 30 percent last year.
”Samsung’s proven ability to quickly produce and replace a wide range of handsets aimed at several different markets contrasts with Nokia’s struggles and Apple’s difficulties that are mainly related to parts sourcing problems,’’ said Hwang Min-seong, an analyst at Samsung Securities.
Hwang expects Samsung’s handset division to raise its profit to 21 trillion won [$18.16B] next year from an expected 19 trillion [$16.43B] won this year.

Samsung Vietnam SEV-Project [SAMOO Architects & ENGINEERS, 2011]

imageLocation
Hanoi, Vietnam
Program
Industrial
Area
80,727㎡
Floors
2 Stories
Year
2011

This was started 3 years ago with the declaration that Samsung Boosting Handset Output in China to Beat Nokia [The Korea Times, March 22, 2010]

Samsung Electronics plans to produce over half of its mobile handsets at its three Chinese facilities this year.

For better logistics and labor costs, the world’s second-biggest manufacturer of mobile phones is giving more responsibility to its Chinese affiliates, while the company is leaning toward high-end and pricy phones for its local line, officials told The Korea Times Monday.
According to Samsung and industry officials, it has been set to make over 210 million units or some 80 percent of the total outside South Korea in 2010.
Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung’s telecommunication division, which is in charge of mobile phones, earlier said the company will sell a maximum 270 million handsets including 18 million smartphones by the end of this year.
Samsung’s factory in Huizhou, China, is expected to produce 72.9 million units (27 percent), while another China-based factory in Tianjin will manufacture 70.2 million (26 percent).
The other Chinese facility in Shenzhen will produce some 7 million handsets, the officials said.
A plant in Vietnam will handle 37.8 million units (14 percent), while 59.4 million (22 percent) will be produced from the local line in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. Lines in Brazil and India will produce 19 million and 10 million, respectively.
Over the past five years, the proportion of Samsung’s mobile handset output that has been manufactured overseas has risen dramatically.
The consumer electronics giant is seeking to cut costs and use these savings to invest in the development of new technologies such as touch-screens and powerful mobile software used to drive the devices’ operating systems.
It can be used to compete with other international brands such as Nokia, Apple of the United States and Research In Motion (RIM) in Canada.
Samsung’s proportion of overseas mobile phone production is forecast to reach a record 78 percent throughout this year. The proportion has steadily risen from 25 percent in 2005 to over 70 percent in 2009, they said.
“The biggest change was that Samsung has given more production authority to its Huizhou affiliate. Better cost cuts in logistics and labor had been the top considerations,” a high-ranking industry official said.

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Samsung Goes South
Samsung Electronics has lowered its portion of mobile phone production in Tianjin to 26 percent from last year’s 33.5 percent. In contrast, the company raised the levels in Huizhou and Vietnam, respectively.
“Due to cost factors, Samsung’s key lines in mobile phones are going to the south. Better prices for labor and logistics mean better cost competitiveness, boosting edges in low- and mid-tier phone segments,” a Samsung official said, asking not to be identified.
Huizhou is a city located in central Guangdong Province. The city looks out to the South China Sea to the south, while the city Tianjin is near China’s capital city of Beijing.
Officials say an increased output plan at its factory in Vietnam has also been matching Samsung’s realignment moves in production.
Last October, Samsung opened a $700 million manufacturing plant in the northern province of Bac Ninh, Vietnam. It is its first foreign-owned handset factory and the 7th Samsung plant operating outside South Korea.
The factory’s estimated production capacity in 2009 was 1.5 million units per month, however, that will increase to 6 million per month by 2010, and 9 million by 2011, according to representatives.
“It’s natural to give more authority in production to regions that have competitive edges in costs as Samsung has been expanding its output in the global market,” a company spokesman said.
Its local line is handling high-end and pricey phones such as AM OLED-embedded devices. Samsung is pushing for the so-called AM OLED phones to emerging and some of developed markets.
The company has a plan to ramp up the production of AM OLED-embedded smartphones domestically, though the chief of its phone business Shin Jong-kyun declined to comment.
“By sending most of its production outside South Korea, Samsung is managing to keep costs low enough to appeal to consumers while keeping its profit margins healthy by selling premium devices in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe,” So Hyun-chul, an analyst at Shinhan Financial, said.

imageNokia in its Sights?

Analysts and Samsung officials say the transitional efforts will help the handset powerhouse narrow the market gap with the Finland-based Nokia.
Last year, Nokia sold 431.8 million handsets worldwide, taking up 38.2 percent of the market share.
But this was a decrease of 1.6 percent from the previous year, according to research firms.
Samsung, however, saw a 3.3 percent increase to 20.1 percent during the same period.
“Samsung is injecting more resources for its smartphone-related sectors. But at the same time, it is concentrating on shipping more feature phones for bigger shares,” the company official added.
It lagged with its fewer smartphone offerings, but has vowed to attack the market aggressively in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Samsung is hoping to pick up smartphone market shares from faltering Motorola, but the U.S. company itself has been waging a comeback of sorts with its new Android handsets.
Unfortunately, it only has a 3 percent of share in the smartphone market, according to recent reports.
From 2005 to 2009, Samsung’s overall mobile phone shipments grew by 101 percent from 103.8 million units in 2005, according to BMI research.
The company expects to raise its global market share from 21 percent to around 23-24 percent. Meanwhile, Nokia’s market share is predicted to remain between 37 percent and 38 percent level in 2010.
Lee Seung-hyuck, an analyst at Woori Investment, expects Samsung will take up a record 21.5 percent of global shares in the first quarter of this year by shipping 63 million handsets during the January-March period.

Which was reviewed recently by eager Japanese as well in their Dial Vietnam For Cheap Labor [The Nikkei Asian Review June 12 edition, 2013] article:

HANOI, SEOUL, TOKYO — About 30 minutes from an international airport, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics makers has created a town in what is, despite its proximity to the airport, rural Vietnam. It is complete with restaurants, cafes and apartment buildings. And let us not forget the big production plant where the town’s 30,000 or so residents work.
While the Mekong River basin is becoming increasingly linked, Vietnam is also advancing on its own, taking advantage of its strategic location and Asia’s changing business conditions. The growth of manufacturing in Vietnam is illustrative of how labor costs in China, the world’s factory, are becoming too expensive for some global goliaths.
Powerhouse
The company town in the Yen Phong Industrial Zone is about half an hour from Noi Bai International Airport, and perhaps a bit closer to Hanoi, the country’s capital. On a map, the three places look like the points of a triangle. The town was built by Samsung Electronics Vietnam, a unit of South Korean powerhouse Samsung Electronics Co.
This new facility in Bac Ninh Province produces many of the company’s handheld devices, such as the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II, around the clock. Its output came to 120 million units last year, accounting for 30% of Samsung’s worldwide handheld shipments. This year, the number is expected to climb to 240 million units, with smartphones making up much of the increase.
Heart of the action
The global smartphone market will expand to 918 million units this year, according to estimates from U.S. research firm IDC. Samsung’s Vietnamese production base will likely supply more than 20% of this volume.
This puts the Southeast Asian nation hot on the heels of the giant economy to the north, which has been responsible for roughly half the world’s smartphone output. And Vietnam is not just where the final product is being assembled; it is also becoming a hub for electronic parts makers, mostly to feed Samsung’s smartphone production.
Samsung decided to set up shop in northern Vietnam to take advantage of the region’s low labor costs as well as its proximity to South Korea, Taiwan and China, where most key smartphone and mobile phone parts are still made.
imageAccording to Ryo Ikebe, an assistant professor who studies economic collaboration between Vietnam and China’s south at Fukui Prefectural University, the trade of integrated circuits and other electronic components between the two countries has been surging since last year.

Samsung also flies in DRAM memory chips, organic electroluminescent panels and other core components from South Korea.

A facility has been set up in the town for the sole purpose of handling Samsung’s cargo. Customs procedures, X-ray inspections and other clearance steps normally carried out at airports are done right beside the factory.
It is estimated that nearly 3,000 metric tons of Samsung products are exported from Noi Bai airport every month, accounting for 40% of all cargo leaving the airport.
To handle all the Samsung shipments, Korean Air Lines Co. lands six large cargo planes a week at the airport. Asiana Airlines Inc., another South Korean carrier, comes by three times a week. A lot of the shipments stop in South Korea on their way to Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Ikebe believes that because Greater Hanoi is only 1,000km or so from China’s Guangdong Province, the entire region has the potential to develop into a single economic bloc, with specialized manufacturers operating symbiotically on both sides of the border.
Vietnam exported $12.7 billion worth of handsets and parts in 2012. That is double the previous year’s total and 11% of the country’s overall exports. Thanks to the surge, Vietnam recorded its first trade surplus in 19 years.
More coming
The country is about to become an even bigger smartphone production base. Nokia Corp. has decided to build its own plant in Bac Ninh. The world’s No. 2 cellphone maker could begin production there this summer.
For Japan’s electronic parts makers, Samsung has become a major client on par with Apple Inc. Inspired by the Korean giant’s big footprint in Vietnam, some Japanese companies are rushing to expand their own production in the country.
Meiko Electronics Co., a maker of printed-circuit boards, is expanding the capacity of its Hanoi factory. It will double the facility’s production capacity by bringing in equipment from China. And from fiscal 2014 onward, it will go on a Y4-5 billion ($39.6-49.5 million) per-year investment binge, all the money going into production equipment.
Toko Inc. is a midsize company that makes high-performance coils used in smartphone power circuits. It has been supplying Samsung and other companies from its factory in Da Nang, a port city in central Vietnam. Current production is 130 million units per month, up 10% from the end of last year.
Foster Electric Co., which makes the earphones that come with smartphones, is mechanizing the manufacturing of diaphragms at its factory in Vietnam.
And Panasonic Corp. last year set up a factory for multilayer printed-circuit boards in Vietnam. It sees potential in supplying the key part to Samsung.
Samsung has suppliers within the Samsung group for the components that go inside its smartphones. But the company is expected to buy even more parts from outside suppliers now that its smartphone sales are going ballistic.
Given that so many of today’s smartphone parts are feather light, Samsung can still make a tidy profit even if it flies in parts from makers based in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.
That said, if the number of smartphones produced in Vietnam continues to increase, it will be cheaper to mass-produce the parts locally. Toward that end, Vietnam’s government is already busy showing foreign parts makers around the Yen Phong Industrial Zone.
— Translated from an article by Nikkei staff writers Manabu Ito, Kentaro Ogura and Yoshio Takatsuki

The trend is obvious, but Why Vietnam is the new China for the global electronics giants [whathifi.com, Feb 19, 2013]

There’s a problem with China.
It’s not the oft-rehearsed arguments about British jobs being exported there, products bearing ‘once-great’ British names being made in Chinese factories or even whole British companies falling into Chinese hands.
No, the problem with China is that it’s getting a bit too expensive for its own good, thanks to rising standards of living, the demand for production capacity there, and the growing aspirations of Chinese workers – they’re now not just making the products we all buy, but thinking of being able to buy them, too.
And that’s leading ever more companies to look for new countries in which to manufacture, with serious investments being made in the likes of Brazil – where one company is planning five new plants – and Vietnam, the target of substantial further investment from South Korea’s two consumer electronics big-hitters, LG and Samsung.
It’s one of the clichés of the modern age: products once made by proud British craftsmen in brown shop-coats and flat caps, the stub of a pencil behind one ear and a roll-up behind the other, now being put together by slave-labour Chinese teenagers working night and day for a pittance.
The truth – as in this IAG factory where Audiolab, Quad and more are made – is often far from that myth, but the fact remains that yes, Chinese wages are still much lower than in Europe or the US, for example.
20% annual wage rises
However, they have been rising, and fast – by up to 20% a year for the past half-decade.
For example Foxconn, the Taiwan-based company that’s both one of the biggest employers in China, with a million-plus-strong workforce in its 13 factories there, and one of the best-known – due to the fact it makes iPods, iPhones and iPads alongside Kindles, Wiis and PlayStations and much more – , hiked its workers’ wages by 16-25% last year.
That was just the most recent of several wage increases on a similar scale, and such rises have led some economic forecasters to suggest that China is in great danger of pricing itself out of the market, predicting that the cost of manufacturing there could double, or even treble, by the end of this decade.
Cheaper in America?
Indeed, some commentators even suggest that if the costs of shipping, and Chinese workers’ wages, continue to rise as they have, within a few years it’s going to just as cost-effective to make products in North America as in China.
Certainly the companies once looking to China for cost-effective – oh, OK then, cheap – manufacturing are casting their net wider.
Foxconn has announced that, although it’s planning more factories in China, it’s investing almost $500m in five new plants in Brazil, creating 10,000 jobs, and three more in Malaysia, to add to other operations in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Mexico – not to mention the joint-venture Sharp LCD plants in Japan, which it now more or less runs, and which it is expected to acquire completely at some point.
And for both LG and Samsung, Vietnam seems to be the new frontier: both companies already have plants there; both are planning significant investment and expansion in the country.
LG is already manufacturing all four of its major product lines – TVs, fridges, washing machines and air conditioners – at factories in Vietnam, but is now set to invest $300m in a new plant in Haiphong, the country’s third city.
The new facility, set to be up and running by 2020, will enable LG to integrate its existing operations in the port city, east of Hanoi, and surrounding areas, enabling it to meet growing local demand as well as having capacity for exports.
It’s also considering the manufacture of mobile phones at the facility.
The plan will see production being shifted from China to the new plants, LG citing lower labour costs and the availability of skilled workers, and the company hopes it will be sweetened by Vietnamese government incentives including reduced prices for land leases and extended exemptions from corporation tax.
Not to be outdone, Samsung already has in place plans to build at least one more plant to assemble mobile phones and other hi-tech electronics in Thai Nguyen province, north of Hanoi, and possibly a third.
It already has a factory employing 24,000 and making 11m products a month in Vietnam, and expected to export goods worth $10bn this year.
Since opening that first plant (above) in 2009, it has just about doubled output each year, although some Vietnamese commentators question whether this is giving the country a mobile phone industry, or just an assembly one for foreign investors.
One expert on the country’s mobile phone industry last year bemoaned the fact that only the plastic casework for mobile phones was actually manufactured locally, and accounted for just one percent of the value of the finished product.
Samsung’s new plant in Thai Nguyen, the land lease for which was signed a couple of weeks ago, is the subject of a $700m investment, with Samsung chairman Lee Kun Hee, seen above visiting Samsung’s existing production plant in Vietnam, saying that there are plenty of further opportunities for investment in the country.
He’s probably right – after all, economic analysts are already describing Vietnam as having the potential to become the ‘new industrial factory of the world’.
The process by which recent industrialisation started in Japan, moved to South Korea, Taiwan and the like, then on to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, and has settled for now in China. will, it seems, just keep on rolling.
Writing this piece, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a press trip to the Far East many years ago, when a number of journalists were helicoptered into a factory in Thailand – one of three we visited that day owned by a Japanese company making speaker drive units.
One of our number commented on the large number of young Thai women working on the production lines, and our host, the factory boss, explained to us that they were brought in from agricultural areas all over the country.
They’d never left their rural homes before, had taken some time to adapt to the conveniences of modern living – especially the ‘conveniences’, our Japanese host stressed – and had been specially chosen for their small nimble fingers, especially suited to handling the tiny precision components used on the lines.
‘Not to mention being very, very cheap,’ muttered one of my fellow travellers…
Written by Andrew Everard
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Windows Embedded is an enterprise business now, like the whole Windows business, with Handheld and Compact versions to lead in the overall Internet of Things market as well

June 8, 2013 2:09 pm / 4 Comments on Windows Embedded is an enterprise business now, like the whole Windows business, with Handheld and Compact versions to lead in the overall Internet of Things market as well

OR Windows Embedded: Recommitting to x86 across all of the edge devices of the future intelligent systems of enterprise customers and consumers while pushing ARM along its current positions in mobile and real-time, which is essentially corresponding to the Windows 7 licensing and pricing described by this source 
OR Windows Embedded enterprise solutions strategy based on creating actionable operation intelligence extended to edge devices in retail and hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and automotive industries
OR Capitalizing on the Internet of Things [WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, March 20, 2013] and Transforming Business 
OR Building Edge Devices & Intelligent Solutions [WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, March 20, 2013]
OR (as stemming from The future of Windows Embedded: from standalone devices to intelligent systems [this same ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ blog, March 9-29, 2012], note however that ARM architecture support was delivered only in Handheld and Compact versions despite original hint included into that post)
An intelligent system built on Windows Embedded—with the expertise of the extensive community of established Windows Embedded partners—extends the power of Windows and Microsoft technologies to edge devices. Our portfolio of products powers solutions that meet unique industry needs and span enterprises of any size and complexity.
coinciding with:
1.  Microsoft betting on boosting Windows RT demand with top level ARM SoCs from its SoC partners, Windows 8.1 enhancements, Outlook addition to the Office 2013 RT and very deep tactical discounts to its OEM partners for tablet offerings of more value and capability [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, June 6, 2013] and
2. “Cloud first” from Microsoft is ready to change enterprise computing in all of its facets [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, June 4, 2013], as well as
3. Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 is here [The Visual Studio Blog, April 4, 2013] which according to ANNOUNCING VISUAL STUDIO 2012 UPDATE 2 CTP 2 [BlendInsider, Jan 30, 2013] providing the utmost effectivity in developer productivity, finally achieving uniformity in XAML based embedded user experience design as well with one version of Blend for everything (highlighted inserts are mine):
image

as Windows Azure is providing a leading cloud application platform for all that (download): image
and an excellent  testimony to that is given in Discovering Intelligent Systems at work in Manufacturing [Windows Embedded Blog, Nov 27, 2012] from which it is important to include the basic story (just substitute “’intelligent’screwdriver” with “any enterprise or consumer device enhanced with ‘intelligence’”, “larger network in the factory” with “classic and mobile Internet” and the “backend” with “Windows Azure” to understand the enormous potential which is becoming available for Microsoft in terms of the Internet of Things market):

Hey everyone, recently our Windows Embedded team was on a customer site visit in Europe, and we came across a fantastic example of Intelligent Systems in action. While we were touring an automobile manufacturing plant, we observed the line using electric screwdrivers like the one pictured below. They had two cables running into them. Power and Ethernet. We asked the tour director about the network cable, and they explained that the screwdriver was actually an ‘intelligent’ screwdriver.
We smiled at the thought of this basic piece of hardware actually being able to think about what it was doing. Then he explained it and we were amazed. The screwdriver was hung off a manufacturing line Windows Embedded Compact PC that was connected to a larger network in the factory. The backend provided the screwdriver engineering specs about the screw going into that location on the car, including the required torque and even the number of revolutions that Class 1 screw should take to achieve the desired torque. So, when the technician popped the screw into the chassis, all they had to do was fire the trigger, and everything was automatic. They even had some scenarios where this was done using robotic arms instead of people.
imageWhen the screw was installed in the car, a data point was generated that came back down the network cable and registered in the factory database. Basically, an ‘OK’, or ‘NOT OK’ was registered, and in the case of either the torque being missed, or that torque being achieved in an unexpected number of revolutions, a flag was popped to investigate further. In summary, the car would not get off the production line if the quality bar wasn’t met.
We have learned since this visit that a number of our partners, and several large automotive manufacturers have deployed this technology in their factories both here in North America and in Europe.
The volume of parts going into just one car is massive, a true big data story, and the business doesn’t necessarily want to know about the hundreds of thousands of screws installed in their factory. What they do want to know is when a threshold like an engineering spec is missed. This type of approach enables business critical data to be presented, relevant, and not washed out in the volumes of activities/events happening minute by minute on the factory floor. …

In the IDC iView, sponsored by Microsoft, The Rise of Intelligent Systems: Connecting Enterprises and Smart Devices in Seamless Networks [April 18, 2012], you can find the following market forecast:

… embedded and intelligent systems represent a much larger opportunity than the PC, tablet, or even the smartphone market. IDC estimates that the intelligent systems market will grow from 19% of all major electronic system unit shipments in 2010, to more than 27% of all systems by 2016. Revenue for the intelligent systems market will grow from more than $649 billion in 2012, to more than $1.4 trillion in 2016 (PCs and smartphones excluded from market-size numbers).

On the market for more than five years and with more than 5 million cars sold already, but in joint development since 2005, Ford SYNC based on Microsoft embedded technology is the best showcase of both the market potential and the level of achievements possible in this post-PC market for Microsoft:

The Ford Focus now comes with the optional Ford Sync system, which provides voice control and smartphone app integration. Jason Johnson, of Ford, takes us through a detailed demonstration of the system, showing off its ability to recognise navigation and phone book commands, as well as its wireless hot spot feature.

Soon we will have further advancements: Ford to Show the Smarter Way to Get There at Computex 2013 [press release, May 23, 2013] which you can follow on a special Ford Motor Company – Computex FB site which currently contains teaser videos about Future Technology Trends, Open Innovation and Device Interaction featuring Microsoft as well(note that those things are quite necessary as competition is getting stronger)

  • Ford will be the only automaker at Computex 2013, the largest computer exhibition in Asia
  • Ford will make several major announcements on its smart technologies for both Taiwan and Asia Pacific and Africa markets
  • Ford to showcase its most advanced class-leading technologies, designed to take the driving experience for customers to a new level
Inserted later: Ford Press Conference Highlights at Computex 2013  [FordAPA YouTube channel, June 6, 2013]
Ford Motor Company today announced it will bring its Ford Developer Program to markets in Asia Pacific and Africa to allow developers to create voice-activated apps for the car, further reinforcing its position as a global leader in technology.
    TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 23, 2013 – Ford Motor Company will show the Smarter Way to Get There at Computex 2013 with the most advanced class-leading technologies to further enhance the driving experience for customers.
    Ford will be the only automaker at Asia’s biggest computer exhibition from June 4-8, 2013, where it will make several major announcements for both Taiwan and Asia Pacific.
    “As one of the world’s largest and most influential technology shows, Computex is the ideal platform for Ford to showcase how our smart technologies are improving the driving experience for our customers in the digital age, ” said John Lawler, chairman and CEO, Ford Motor China.
    “In a world where consumers want to be connected all the time, be it at home, in the office or in their cars, we have a great opportunity to provide driver-connect technologies in our vehicles which enable drivers to stay connected through voice commands while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The technologies we are bringing to our vehicles not only give our customers a connected driving experience, they also make that experience simple, safe and personalized.”
    The Ford stand at Computex will not only feature the company’s most advanced technology developments, but also the all-new Ford Kuga, dubbed by Ford as the “Smarter SUV” because of its fuel economy, versatility and new technology that makes driving easier and more fun.
    Inserted later: Ford at Computex 2013 – Panel Discussion
    [FordAPA YouTube channel, June 5, 2013]
    On June 4, Ford will be part of the Computex Smart Living Industry Forum at which Edward Pleet, Connected Services Director, Ford Motor Company, Asia Pacific and Africa, and Europe will discuss The Smart Living, Networked Society.
    The Ford booth will be located at Taipei Word Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall, 4th Floor, booth number M2005.

    image

    OR Windows Embedded: Recommitting to x86 across all of the edge devices of the future intelligent systems of enterprise customers and consumers while pushing ARM along its current positions in mobile and real-time, which is essentially corresponding to the Windows 7 licensing and pricing described by this source as (here only WIN7 COMPACT (CE) has ARM support as well):image
    (click here or on the above image to see the full table, note also that the true enterprise licensing via even cheaper SELECT and EA (Enterprise Agreement) programs is not shown in the table, for explanations also see WES 7 “E” & “P”, WES SKU Differences, FES, FES 7 Pro, FES 7 Ultimate, WES vs FES, FES Pro & Ultimate SKU Differences, Win7 Compact (CE), Win7 Compact (CE) SKU Differences, Win7 Compact (CE) OS Components and “SKU rationale” from Microsoft) on which I overlaid the corresponding Windows Embedded 8 products and their already known (like General Embedded / NR / Entry for Windows Embedded Compact 2013 to be generally available on June 13) or supposed (like Standard ?…? / Standard ?Enterprise? for the Windows Embedded 8 Standard) SKUs. 

    imageNote that the above table could be misleading since it is just representing low-volume purchases while Microsoft is using License Packs as well where the per unit price is non-linearly decreasing with the number of licenses in the Pack. Fortunately I’ve found current trade data records for WINDOWS EMBEDDED STANDARD 8 EMB ESD OEI RUNTIME -7WT-00094(N-77P-3153) [April 9, 2013] and WIN PRO EMBEDDED 8 EMB ESD OEI -42C-00051(N-77P-3154) [April 9, 2013] from Taiwan to India which I could use as Model 1 and Model 2 for supposed pricing of the Windows Embedded 8 Standard, see the results on the above right. This could certainly be not so steep in reality (e.g. the model numbers were “more decreased” in trade declarations for the larger License Packs representing higher absolute value in order to decrease the absolute tax even more) as it is only giving a kind of idea for License Packs.

    It is also important to include here the argumentation why Isn’t a Linux or Android solution cheaper? [one of FAQs answered by Avnet Embedded, May 1, 2013]:

    Linux or Android solutions may seem cheaper initially. However, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) should be taken into account as a useful metric for assessing the overall cost impact of your investment. For example:

    • Acquisition costs— Inexpensive comparable products can cost as much or more than Windows to acquire and support.
    • Total costs—Acquisition costs are a very small component of TCO. Even when the costs of different operating systems are comparable, research shows that Windows often offers a lower TCO because of cost advantages in the other, larger components, such as staffing and downtime.
    • Cost vs. Value—In addition to what you must pay for, if you are making an investment in IT you should also consider what you will get in return; including features or capabilities that improve productivity and deliver additional value.   

    To find out more about the TCO of Windows Embedded, read ‘The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefits of Windows Embedded software’ ebook. 

    If the runtime license still looks too expensive than it is important to consider that we are talking here about very special types of devices with the x86 based Windows Embedded 8. Here is how Microsoft representing that x86-only focus on the top of “edge devices of the future intelligent systems of enterprise customers“: image
    This has even very strong industry focus: Retail (from Kiosk to ATM), Manufacturing and Health Care. So we can proceed to other post titles which are equally important to properly represent the redefined Windows Embedded positioning:

    OR Windows Embedded enterprise solutions strategy based on creating actionable operation intelligence extended to edge devices in retail and hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and automotive industries

    OR Capitalizing on the Internet of Things [WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, March 20, 2013] and watch also: Transforming Business

    The Internet of Things is prompting businesses to re-think how they use their digital assets. Kevin Dallas, GM of Windows Embedded at Microsoft, tells GigaOM Research’s Adam Lesser how companies can build intelligent systems to take advantage of the data their devices are already generating, for better business intelligence.

    OR Building Edge Devices & Intelligent Solutions [WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, March 20, 2013]

    To be a part of the Internet of Things, businesses need the right kinds of devices. Kevin Dallas, GM of Windows Embedded at Microsoft, tells GigaOM Research’s Adam Lesser what OEM/ODMs should think about as they help their customers build intelligent systems to take advantage of the data their devices are already generating.

    Other videos in the “Building Edge Devices & Intelligent Solutions” series:
    Dell Wyse, HP, Omnicell and ParTech, Inc. I will embedd here even Bravo Outdoor Advertising Reaches Greater Heights With Intelligent System [WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, Feb 11, 2013] as it shows very well how the range of edge devices could be hugely extended over the years (here with digital signage on the public transport in Ireland):

    Adrian O’Farrell, former marketing director for Bravo Outdoor Advertising, describes the many benefits — flexibility, customization and cost — of digital signage as opposed to traditional advertising on the Dublin bus system.

    OR
    (as stemming from The future of Windows Embedded: from standalone devices to intelligent systems [this same ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ blog, March 9-29, 2012], note however that ARM architecture support was delivered only in Handheld and Compact versions despite original hint included into that post)

    An intelligent system built on Windows Embedded—with the expertise of the extensive community of established Windows Embedded partners—extends the power of Windows and Microsoft technologies to edge devices. Our portfolio of products powers solutions that meet unique industry needs and span enterprises of any size and complexity.

    From Learn more about intelligent systems subpage linked on Microsoft > Windows Embedded > Products and Solutions page [May 6, 2013] which page also contains:

    Unlock intelligence with the full breadth of Microsoft technologies
    What happens when devices at the edge of enterprise networks are connected to software and services in the back end or the cloud? Suddenly, a rich new source of information is available. The data has always been there—but today, an integrated stack of Microsoft technologies, extending from the server room to the customer’s fingertips, can help evolve business intelligence to operational intelligence by enabling enterprises to identify and act on opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. For OEMs, the ability to harness the power of Microsoft technologies to capitalize on data gathered from edge devices translates to new and expanded potential for creating solutions for customers.

    [The Big Shift From Software to Cloud Services video of Nov 13, 2012 from WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel is quite important to embed here, since it clearly shows that Microsoft is shifting from being a software company to a hardware & services company:]

    Windows Azure Marketing General Manager Eron Kelly discusses Microsoft Corp.’s focus on delivering software through the cloud and the opportunity it creates for devices and intelligent systems.
    One Microsoft, everything you need
    When connecting industry devices powered by Windows Embedded to back-end systems running SQL Server on-premise—or secured by Azure in the cloud–business data is without boundaries. Those building intelligent system solutions will shorten development time, and simplify implementation and management by harnessing the full breadth of Microsoft technologies, from the rich, familiar experience of Windows, to simplified management with System Center and security with Forefront. Device manufacturers, evaluate your intelligent systems business capabilities with Microsoft.
    Devices at the network edge: critical infrastructure for intelligent systems
    Intelligent systems are revolutionizing business, and Microsoft is focused on driving innovation in a number of industries, including retail and hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and automotive. Whether streamlining inventory management with industry handheld devices, securely handling medical records using a thin-client solution, reinventing the customer experience with point-of-sale devices, transforming factory efficiencies with embedded robots, or reimagining the driving experience with an in-car infotainment system, edge devices are all around us. Powering these devices with Windows Embedded harnesses Microsoft technologies to create customized solutions that address specific industry needs and drive innovation—and profits—forward.
    According to IDC, unit shipments of IP-connected embedded systems, excluding mobile phones and PCs, will more than double by 2015, growing from approximately 1.4 billion in 2010 to over 3.3 billion.

    Source: IDC, “Smart Tech Market Forecast and 2020 Vision.”

    Specialized devices in the marketplace

    Select an industry [with a latest video of May 6, 2013 embedded here for each from WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel, in order to let you see how Microsoft and Windows Embedded are providing the technology, strategic leadership and partner ecosystem that are driving innovation]

    As far as the Windows Embedded 8 is concerned we have a pretty clear picture now:
    Windows Embedded 8 [Microsoft > Windows Embedded > Products and Solutions > Windows Embedded Products page, May 6, 2013]

    From this page the basic offerings (based on Windows 8) are the following ones:

    The Windows Embedded 8 family of platforms and tools helps companies extend their operational intelligence [by harnessing the flow of data across industry devices on the edge and back-end systems], using their existing IT infrastructure and industry devices that securely exchange data with back-end systems. Offering the same rich, multi-touch experience as Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 , Windows Embedded 8 delivers compelling user experiences on a range of industry devices.

    Windows Embedded 8 Pro

    The power and flexibility of Windows 8 in a platform designed specifically for building edge devices [digital signs or point-of-service terminals in a store environment, handheld devices, robots on the manufacturing floor, or thin client devices in hospitals to transform business intelligence to actionable operation intelligence] and intelligent systems solutions [such as kiosks, medical devices, digital signage and HMI (human machine interface)].

    • Deliver a user experience that’s identical to Windows 8.
    • Design custom apps that feature the fast, fluid behavior of Windows 8.
    • Security features such as Bitlocker and Trusted Boot.
    • Compatible with line-of-business and productivity apps.

    Learn more

    [The Next Generation Digital Signage on Display at Computex 2012 video of June 25, 2012 from WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel is quite important to embed here, since it clearly discusses the direction for digital signage systems where full Windows compatibility is essential:]

    Windows Embedded’s John Boladian and Intel’s Gark Tan show off today’s interactive digital signage that create an engaging and connected experience for customers through combined technologies from Kinect for Windows, Windows Embedded and Intel’s Core processors.

    Windows Embedded 8 Standard

    Offers flexibility for purpose-built devices, such as thin clients, kiosks [digital signage] and automated manufacturing solutions.

    • Compelling UI, powerful app support, security and manageability of Windows 8.
    • Modular format allows you to use only the components needed.
    • Ensure consistent configuration with embedded specific lockdown features.
    • Custom branding feature.

    Learn more 

    [The Demo: Windows 8 on Embedded Devices video of Nov 13, 2012 from WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel is quite important to embed here, since it clearly shows the actually best example of a purpose-built ruggedized device (from a long-time partner Motion Computing) based on Windows 8 which is a kind of prototype of similar “custom branded” devices based on Windows Embedded 8 Standard:]

    Embedded Group Manager John Coyne shows off an industry application on a PC running Windows Embedded 8.

    Windows Embedded 8 Industry

    A consistent, streamlined application platform that shortens development cycles for specific industry device scenarios in retail, manufacturing and other industries [such as POS terminals, ATMs, automated manufacturing solutions and medical devices].

    • Compelling UI, powerful app support, security and manageability of Windows 8.
    • Ensure consistent configuration with lockdown features.
    • Fixed platform provides a consistent development experience.
    • Plug and play peripheral capabilities with POS for .NET.

    Learn more

    [The Intelligent Systems Making Vending Machines Fun at Computex 2012 video of June 25, 2012 from WindowsEmbedded YouTube channel is quite important to embed here, since it demonstrates an interactive smart vending machine where retail peripheral support is essential:]

    Windows Embedded’s John Boladian and Intel’s Gark Tan discuss the value and growth of intelligent systems across devices and the cloud. By highlighting an interactive smart vending machine, they show that intelligent systems not only make the purchase experience fun, but give the vendor a competitive advantage through increased connectivity, data collection, manageability and business analytics

    [Read also: Windows Embedded 8 Industry: A Modern OS for Industry Devices [Windows Embedded blog, April 2, 2013] “On the heels of our recent release of the Windows Embedded 8 platform, we’re making another member of the Windows Embedded family available today — Windows Embedded 8 Industry. David Wurster, Microsoft Windows Embedded’s senior product manager, has details on how Windows Embedded has evolved beyond point-of-service (POS) systems in retail to do much more in the Windows 8 era.”]

    Compare Windows Embedded 8 products

    Features
    Pro
    Standard
    Industry
    Rich multitouch, multi-user interface
    clip_image002
    clip_image002[1]
    clip_image002[2]
    Connectivity features, including connected standby, mobile broadband and WiFi
    clip_image002[3]
    clip_image002[4]
    clip_image002[5]
    Powerful security features, including anti-malware support, BitLocker and Trusted Boot
    clip_image002[6]
    clip_image002[7]
    clip_image002[8]
    Lockdown support, including unified write filter, gesture and keyboard filters
    		  
    clip_image002[9]
    clip_image002[10]
    Retail peripheral support

     

     
    clip_image002[11]
    Custom branding
    		  
    clip_image002[12]
    		  
    Full Windows compatibility
    clip_image002[13]

     

    		  
    Fixed image
    clip_image002[14]

     
    clip_image002[15]
    Easy end-to-end device management with Microsoft System Center
    clip_image002[16]
    clip_image002[17]
    clip_image002[18]
    Modular OS
    		  
    clip_image002[19]
    		  

    In addition there are the following complementary offerings, which are not based on Windows 8, are shown on the same page as well:

    Windows Embedded 8 Handheld

    Built on Windows Phone 8 to offer intuitive line-of-business applications [such as package delivery, mobile point-of-service, communication and collaboration, and scanning and data capture], with proven integration and security for industry handheld devices.

    • Common application programming interfaces so that devices easily integrate.
    • Manage devices across the network through the use of Windows Intune and SCCM 2012.
    • Benefit from a large selection of Windows Phone 8 apps.
    • Use the Windows Phone 8 SDK and Visual Studio 2012 to create custom apps.

    Learn more

    [Read also: Windows Embedded 8 Handheld joins the Windows Embedded 8 family [Windows Embedded blog, Jan 14, 2013] “Windows Embedded 8 Handheld is more than just the successor to Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5. It’s a complete re-imagination of the enterprise mobile device. With Windows Embedded 8 Handheld, the platform is now based on the Windows Phone 8, which itself is built on Windows 8. In addition to the highly-praised Windows Phone 8 user interface, both Windows Phone 8 and Windows Embedded 8 Handheld now share a common kernel with Windows.”]

    Windows Server 2012 for Embedded Systems

    Binary identical to Windows Server, a proven, highly reliable operating system for embedded applications in server appliances [such as of telecommunications, medical imaging, industrial automation and corporate headquarters]

    • Enable informed, real-time decisions that keep your enterprise ahead of the competition.
    • New storage features optimize the reliability and efficiency of data stores and scale to meet demand and reduce costs.
    • Equip employees with insightful analysis and reporting services.

    Learn more

    Microsoft SQL Server 2012 for Embedded Systems

    A database management tool, binary identical to Microsoft SQL Server, for use with purpose-built hardware running the Windows Embedded Server operating system [such as in telecommunications, medical imaging, industrial automation and corporate headquarters].

    • Glean new business insights from data, and harness it in real time.
    • Provide access to powerful data analysis and visualization tools.
    • Flexibility and usability for auditing and security manageability across SQL Server environment.

    Learn more

    Windows Embedded 8 Mission and Vision (from  Microsoft’s Intelligent Systems [Microsoft > Windows Embedded > Intelligent Systems page, May 7, 2013])

    Actionable data fueled by intelligent systems is the new currency for business, and its value is expected to increase exponentially, improving how people live, learn and conduct business. Gartner predicts that big data will “deliver transformational benefits to enterprises” in the coming 2-5 years, and that by 2015, enterprises that employ big data strategies “will begin to outperform their unprepared competitors within their industry sectors by 20 percentage in every available financial metric.” (Source: Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, August, 2012.) With intelligent systems, Microsoft is helping organizations access and transform critical data into operational intelligence by providing a wide range of operating systems, tools, and systems and services.

    Our mission is to drive business growth and competitive advantage for our enterprise customers and partners through technology innovations that capitalize on the vast potential of data. Your investment in Windows Embedded is backed by Microsoft’s proven commitment to intelligent systems through more than 15 years of experience in the market.

    Industry Focus (from Microsoft’s Intelligent Systems [Microsoft > Windows Embedded > Intelligent Systems page, May 7, 2013])

    Intelligent systems are revolutionizing business and Microsoft is focused on driving innovation in retail and hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and automotive industries. Customized solutions built with Windows Embedded harness Microsoft technologies to address specific industry needs by connecting devices on the edge of enterprise networks with existing IT infrastructures—on a single platform. The resulting intelligent systems help retailers deliver personal, seamless and differentiated experiences to customers; manufacturers increase efficiencies at every level of the operation to deliver innovative services, implement best-practice operations and enhance planning and decision-making processes; healthcare institutions optimize patient care and outcomes by bringing people, processes and information together; and automakers evolve “intelligent car” experiences, allowing drivers to access innovative in-car communication, infotainment, navigation and fuel-efficiency features.

    Our Solutions Approach (from Microsoft’s Intelligent Systems [Microsoft > Windows Embedded > Intelligent Systems page, May 7, 2013])

    Microsoft’s tools and technologies for intelligent system solutions extend beyond a software package or device; the great power and flexibility of industry devices running the Windows Embedded platform is that it works in concert with Microsoft’s cloud products and services, and with existing IT infrastructure to customize a complete connected system.

    Windows Embedded minimizes risk and complexity by providing one trusted platform with which to build solutions and broaden business opportunity. Windows Embedded fits with your needs, connecting data across a diverse set of technologies, providing compatibility across your existing systems, and enabling customization through a worldwide network of partners, to increase ease of use and drive efficiency. And a Microsoft solution extends the intelligence of your organization, increasing opportunities for your workforce to act on data and insights that would otherwise be out of reach.

    On the adjacent to the above “Windows Embedded Products” page there is a “Product Lifecycles” [May 7, 2013] page which contains the following

    Road map for intelligent systems

    With Windows Embedded 8, Microsoft extends Windows 8 to intelligent systems, creating the next wave of enterprise tools and technology. The release schedule includes the Windows Embedded 8 family of device operating systems, each with a distinct feature set that includes the building blocks for an intelligent system across hardware, software and services.

    image

    It means that from the whole portfolio the “Windows Embedded Compact 2013” was missing on May 7 as it was to be delivered in Q2 2013. When clicking on its “+” sign one gets the following description (corrections came in the first week of June with v.3 mark deleted after Blend and “sensory input and Kinect for Windows” deleted, and XAML for Windows embedded, multi-core support as well as Snapshot Boot added; it also coincided with “Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 2013 ISO-TBE” availability for download):

    imageA streamlined, componentized device operating system, Windows Embedded Compact 2013 gives developers all the tools they need to create the next generation of intelligent systems solutions. Compact 2013 provides the flexibility and real-time support to reduce time to market, while creating an easy-to-use, multi-touch experience that helps enterprise customers improve worker productivity.

    • Access to up-to-date tools such as Platform Builder, Visual Studio 2012 and Expression Blend v.3 helps developers to streamline development.
    • Support for XAML for Windows embedded, multi-touch, sensory input and Kinect for Windows and multi-core support enables the creation of immersive applications.
    • Leverage the power of cloud computing through Windows Azure Application Services, giving customers a greater ability to extend their intelligence.
    • Improved file system performance and Snapshot Boot gives companies the confidence that their devices will always be available, whatever their current state .

    The first description of it was given in Windows Embedded Compact v.Next uncovered [Windows Embedded Blog, Nov 14, 2012] as follows

    Posted By David Campbell
    Program Manager

    Woo hoo, it’s finally time to share more information about the upcoming release! First, the release now officially has a name: Windows Embedded Compact 2013. (I know that folks probably have questions around why we chose this name. We thoroughly considered a long list of potential names, including Windows CE again, and Windows Embedded Compact 2013 really did receive the best response.)

    I’ll be doing a number of posts about the various key features and changes in Windows Embedded Compact 2013 over the next few posts, but I want to start with arguably the most interesting of the new features: the investments made for Visual Studio 2012 support, both ISV/app development via Visual Studio directly; and the OEM/device development experience with Platform Builder, now hosted in Visual Studio 2012!

    With all development now in Visual Studio 2012, there is no longer a need for multiple versions of Visual Studio to support Compact development alongside other Windows platforms. Plus, you’ll get many of the new features and productivity improvements available in Visual Studio 2012 when developing for Compact! We now have the same C++ toolset and standards supported everywhere. (And of course Visual Studio 2012 includes the new features from Visual Studio 2010, which were not previously to Compact developers.)

    We also have a new CRT, which has key new functionality aligned as well. (The existing CRT on Compact hasn’t been updated in some time.) And the new optimizer supports functionality like auto-parallelization of your code and auto-vectorization–so if your processor has FP registers, the optimizer will automatically generate code to use vector FP. The 2012 C++ compiler also includes many of the language features from the new C++11 standards.

    C++11 has new language features that allow you to write better performing, safer code and code it faster than ever before. For example, RValue references let you operate on data without having to copy it. And C++11 brings in functional semantics to make writing code more efficient, like having anonymous functions. We also support range based loops, letting you iterate over members of a list directly. More information is available on the Visual Studio team blog.

    .Net CF has also been upgraded to 3.9, which inherits the support Windows Phone updates while still being app compatible with 3.5. This upgrade improves performance significantly in a number of ways. .Net CF 3.9 has greatly improved performance overall, as well as memory allocation and garbage collection using the generational garbage collector. This not only improves performance, but also provides more predictability in the execution of applications. The memory footprint of the runtime is also smaller for both the framework and applications, using what is known as “the sharing server,” allowing loaded code to be reused across applications. The runtime itself is also multi-core enabled, which can improve the performance of all your applications. More information on the updated .Net CF is available on the .NET Framework blog.

    The embedded developer experience improvements of bringing the new features of Visual Studio 2012 to Windows Embedded Compact are amazing, and I’m sure you’ll be as excited as I am to get started using the new features of Visual Studio 2012, Platform Builder and the new Compact OS.

    For information on the upcoming Windows Embedded Compact release, visit www.windowsembedded.com.

    Previous versions with some important new features (my own judgement + Windows CE Wikipedia article + other inputs):

    CE7: Windows Embedded Compact 7 (March 2011)
    – Silverlight for Windows Embedded (UX C++ XAML API): application development made easy, synching designers and developers.
    – Windows Phone 7 IE with Flash 10.1 support: panning, zooming, multitouch and viewing bookmarks using thumbnails, etc
    – Multi-core support
    CE6: Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (September 2006)
    – Significant change in architecture over previous versions of CE (process address space is increased from 32 MB to 2 GB, number of processes has been increased from 32 to 32,768 etc.)
    – Incremental updates to features as R1, R2 and R3 releases
    – Silverlight introduced, Microsoft Office and PDF viewers support too.
    CE5: Windows CE 5.0 (August 2004)
    – Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) introduced
    – Updates to Graphics and Multimedia support
    CE4: Windows CE 4.x (Jan 7, 2002)
    – .Net Compact Framework introduced
    – Since Windows CE.NET 4.2 system uses a new shell with integrated Internet Explorer
    CE3: Windows CE 3.0 (June 15, 2000)
    – Major recode that made CE hard real time down to the microsecond level
    – Base for the Pocket PC 2000, Handheld PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone 2002
    CE2: Windows CE 2.x (Sept 29, 1997)
    – Real-time deterministic task scheduling
    – Architectures: ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, StrongARM, SuperH and x86
    CE1: Windows CE 1.0 (November 1996)

    Related post: Introducing NETCF 3.9 in Windows Embedded Compact 2013 – a faster, leaner and multi-core runtime! [.NET Framework blog, Nov 16, 2012] 

    Ever since .NET Compact Framework was introduced at the PDC conference in 2001, programming with .NET has scaled from some of the smallest devices to the largest servers. With C# and Visual Basic, developers can apply the same skills to program both devices and servers to form a complete end-to-end solution. As the devices become more prevalent in our daily lives, .NET is evolving too. Abhishek Mondal, the program manager for .NET Compact Framework [note that Abdishek Mondal was the program manager for GC as well], shares the following highlights of the latest version. –Brandon

    NETCF 3.9 advances the Windows Embedded Compact Platform

    We are happy to announce that we will be including the .NET Compact Framework 3.9 in Windows Embedded Compact 2013, as part of its upcoming release. We have made major updates in this version of the .NET Compact Framework, which deliver benefits in startup time, application responsiveness and memory utilization. You should see significantly better performance characteristics of your applications on both x86 and ARM devices, running Windows Embedded Compact 2013. You can read more about the Windows Embedded Compact 2013 release at the Microsoft News Center.
    The .NET Compact Framework is a version of the .NET Framework for embedded devices. It provides .NET development support for low-end embedded devices that run the Windows Embedded Compact 2013 OS. NETCF provides a familiar and rich development platform for embedded application development, with a small foot print and an extensive set of .NET functionality. For clarity, the other Windows Embedded OSes use the desktop .NET Framework, the same version that is included with desktop Windows.
    NETCF 3.9 is based on the NETCF version that shipped with Windows Phone 7.5. The following features are the key advances in NETCF 3.9, all big steps forward for app performance:
      • New Generational Garbage Collector for more responsive apps
      • NETCF runtime is now multi-core safe to take advantage of multi-core hardware  
      • Sharing Server feature that reduces working set and improves app launch
        Another major benefit of NETCF 3.9 is Visual Studio 2012 support! You will be able to use the same tools for Windows Embedded Compact 2013 development as you use for Windows, Windows Phone and Windows Azure development. Visual C++ development for this new Windows Embedded Compact version will also be supported in Visual Studio 2012, as reported on the Visual C++ team blog.

        Applications run (a lot) faster with NETCF 3.9

        NETCF 3.9 is a faster and leaner runtime for Windows Embedded Compact 2013. We have made many changes that should enable your apps to run much faster. NETCF is also multi-core safe, enabling you to take advantage of multiple cores on embedded devices. Multiple cores are increasingly available on today’s devices, and can be an important part of delivering a compelling experience to your customers. Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the additional improvements that are part of NETCF 3.9.
        Faster app performance
        NETCF 3.9 has greatly improved performance overall. There are three key features that will speed up your apps. Let’s start with the new garbage collector in NETCF. We have observed app performance in the lab that shows 50-60% drops in GC time. We no longer see GC pauses significantly affecting app responsiveness, in our lab apps, which was a problem that was reported in the past. The new GC is a lot faster!
        For apps that use floating point arithmetic code, you may notice an additional performance boost, since NetCF takes advantage of ARM VFP instructions.
        Last, we’ll look at the new Sharing Server feature. Sharing Server enables a significant improvement in the warm start-up time of your app, particularly in scenarios where multiple applications run on a device. It is able to achieve this benefit by sharing loaded assemblies and JITed machine code across apps (including re-launching the same app).
        Efficient memory utilization of managed application
        The Sharing Server feature also enables lower memory use for NETCF 3.9 apps. As already discussed, the Sharing Server allows code to be reused across applications. In addition to benefiting app launch performance, this feature significantly lowers the aggregate memory use of devices in scenarios where multiple apps are in use.

        Developing apps with NETCF 3.9

        You will find that NETCF is a great addition to a modern development environment. You can use Visual Studio 2012 for development, including features such as Team Foundation Server for source control and feature management.
        Visual Studio 2012 will support Windows Embedded Compact development
        The single most compelling attraction of this release for many of you is the support for embedded development in Visual Studio 2012. This support will simplify development if you are already developing for both Windows or Windows Phone and Windows Embedded Compact, since you can do all of your work in a single Visual Studio environment.
        If you develop exclusively for the embedded platform, then Visual Studio 2012 support will enable you to use ALM tools and TFS in your development environment. There are also other benefits to Visual Studio 2012 such as performance improvements and other tools, which you can explore and enjoy.
        Here is a snapshot of a sample managed application developed using NETCF 3.9 with VS2012:
        imageA simple “Hello World” application on NETCF 3.9
        You can see this same app, running in Hyper-V, stopped at a breakpoint in Visual Studio 2012, using remote debugging:
        imageDebugging a NETCF 3.9 app on Windows, using Hyper-V
        NETCF 3.9 is source compatible with NETCF 3.5
        NETCF 3.9 is a big step forward for performance, however, the APIs that you’ve used in NETCF 3.5 stay the same. As a result, you can move existing .NETCF source code and investments forward to NETCF 3.9.
        You may wonder why NETCF 3.9 is source compatible with NETCF 3.5 and not binary compatible, since .NET assemblies are compiled to the machine-independent MSIL format. There is no change in our assembly format, nor are there any compatibility checks in NETCF 3.9.
        We chose a single compatibility message for Windows Compact Embedded 2013, for both native and .NET development, which is source compatibility. The single biggest driver of this support policy is C++, which needs to be re-compiled for the ARM thumb2 instruction set, with the new Visual Studio 2012 Visual C++ compiler. We have also found that many of you pair your managed code with native implementations. As part of re-compiling that native code, we expect that you may make API changes that would affect your P/Invoke declarations. As a result, we decided that a single compatibility policy for the whole release was the best choice.

        Wrapping Up

        If you are an embedded developer, I’m sure that you are excited that we are making NETCF 3.9 available to you for your embedded apps. We have already talked to a set of developers, who are looking forward to this big update, to significantly improve the runtime performance of the apps that you run on your devices. We look forward to seeing your new devices and the rich experiences that they deliver, after Windows Embedded Compact 2013 is released.
        NETCF 3.9 will be made available with the Windows Embedded Compact 2013 OS, when it is released. It isn’t available at this time. It will also be included in the SDK for the OS, for use with Visual Studio 2012. Watch the Windows Embedded Newsroom for future updates on release plans.
        Follow us or talk to us on Twitter — http://twitter.com/dotnet.

        Then here is Windows Embedded Compact 2013 presentation @Embedded World 2013 [kojtp2 YouTube channel, March 3, 2013]

        [2:55] The “Silverlight for Windows Embedded” name was changed to “XAML for Windows Embedded” because Silverlight was associated with a browser plug-in technology in developers’ minds while here we have nothing like that.

        Since this video has bad voice recording quality it is also worth to watch the Windows Embedded Compact 2013 Technical Overview of what’s new [Microsoft Webinar Live Meeting record, April 30, 2013] from which I will include the following slide screenshots and some transcripts of my own:

        image

        image

        image

        image

        image

        image

        [21:35] Very cool news: „an entirely rewritten and upgraded .NET Compact runtime”

        clip_image002[83]

        [25:25] „XAML for [Windows] Embedded” [changed the name to XAML from Silverlight] allowing UI developers to write using Silverlight, in Expression Blend 5.0 with this release [vs Blend 3 in the previous], which will generate XAML describing the user inerface and the user interactions. We link that in with native C++ code in the back-end, and that allows for extremely powerful interfaces while still allowing for high performance that we use native code plus there’s nothing between us and the operating system, and there’s nothing between us and the hardware, so we have clip_image002[85]much better performance, from real-time perspective as well, not just general performance perspective. … There is increased functionality [in this release] in terms of data binding and data context. … We’ve got new triggers that are supported. … This is still a very, very important area for Microsoft, and frankly from embedded perspective XAML gives you in many ways a superior user interface description environment compared to HTML5. … [27:30]

        clip_image002[87][36:00] .. all-up general SKU … NR SKU for personal navigation devices … and we are coming with a brand new SKU „Windows Embedded Compact 2013 Entry” SKU. And this is the SKU for smaller devices that don’t need XAML capability. .. We haven’t announced our pricing for the 3 SKUs yet. That will be announced around the general availability [GA] timeline. … Windows Embedded Compact 2013 is still on schedule to ship in the first half of 2013. That means June. So we will be shipping and announcing the product in June. What we are giving now is a kind of sneak preview which will give you a technical introduction to the product. [27:53]

        From Q&A

        Using the same rendering engine as before

        XAML for Windows Embedded is not supporting C#

        More information:
        – Windows Embedded Compact 2013 [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]
        from which of particular interest are:
        – What’s New (Compact 2013) [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]
        – Expression Blend and XAML for Windows Embedded (Compact 2013) [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]
        – XAML for Windows Embedded Application Development (Compact 2013) [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]
        – Developer Guides (Compact 2013) [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]
        from which of particular interest is:
        – .NET Compact Framework (Compact 2013) [MSDN Library, April 26, 2013]

        Windows Embedded Compact 7 [Windows Embedded Products Overview > Windows Embedded Compact 7 Product Details page, May 7, 2013]

        Windows Embedded Compact 7 is a componentized, real-time operating system designed for small-footprint devices at the edge of enterprise networks. With support for x86 and ARM architectures, Windows Embedded Compact 7 allows devices to leverage the latest innovations in hardware, and equips developers and device manufacturers with the tools they need to create nimble, enterprise-class intelligent system solutions, while reducing time to market.

        Top features 

        Rich user interface
        Includes XAML for Windows Embedded, a powerful technology that allows you to build interfaces that incorporate touch and gesture support.
        Flexible architecture
        Real-time operating system supports an array of hardware requirements and key processor architectures, including x86 and ARM, to power everything from tiny controls to fully automated factories.
        Secure and reliable
        One-tier security model feature is SDL compliant and helps ensure that only authenticated applications can run on an industry device, with reliable wireless connectivity and networking performance.
        Ease of development
        Familiar tools like Visual Studio and Expression Blend allow you to create attractive and intuitive user interfaces, and bring differentiated devices to market faster than ever before.

        Things you can do

        For Enterprises

          One trusted platform
          Devices running on Windows Embedded Compact 7 are covered under a 10-year support program from Microsoft. You can deploy industry devices with the assurance that technical support will be there, when and if it’s needed. And because you can continue using your existing applications based on Windows Embedded CE 6.0, there is a smooth upgrade path for using current applications while moving to the next generation of touch-enabled apps that provide an easy-to-use experience for getting things done more quickly.
          Meets your needs
          Arm your employees with a new breed of business applications harnessing touch and gesture input that showcase your company’s work and give employees better tools to get things done with intuitive access to information. Windows Embedded Compact 7 also provides a flexible device platform that can run on the smallest of devices, or power rich device experiences. And with the capabilities of a real-time operating system, you can be confident of its ability to meet the most exacting of industry requirements.
          Extend business intelligence
          Windows Embedded Compact 7 supports a variety of connectivity options, providing more flexibility for connecting industry devices to your company’s network. Support for enhanced WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth and USB enables you to deploy devices across your corporate network, where they can help automate business processes and generate data that leads to greater insight. Collectively, these devices can provide you with greater visibility into what’s happening throughout your company. As critical components of an intelligent system, these devices can help you make decisions in real-time, as well as formulate long-term plans for the growth of your business.

          For OEMs

          One trusted platform
          With Windows Embedded Compact 7, you can develop industry devices within the integrated environment of Platform Builder, to allow adjustments on the hard, real-time operating system while working on specific projects simultaneously. And support for Visual Studio 2008, Expression Blend 3.0 and the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 provides access to the tools that OEMs rely on. Windows Embedded Compact 7 also ensures a consistency of APIs and SDKs, making it possible to leverage past investments and current skillsets to create products that are supported by a 10-year support program from Microsoft, along with the assurance that Windows Embedded Compact 7 will be available for 15 years from the time it was first released.
          Create differentiated devices
          Windows Embedded Compact 7 includes a development framework based on XAML and supports a range of architecture options, including ARM, MIPS and x86. As a result, you have greater flexibility to create devices that match your customers’ specifications. Creating these experiences is simplified with tools such as 3D transformation and Pixel/Shader effects. Your devices will give customers the ability to seamlessly share content on business networks, as well as network devices. And the introduction of touch gesture interface allows developers to create a more natural, interactive experience.
          Extend business intelligence
          Create an experience that helps companies get more done. With Windows Embedded Compact 7, you can design a solution that’s more seamless, making it easier for companies to synchronize content with their Windows PCs. And with the Connection Manager feature and multiple connectivity options, you can ensure that businesses have the optimum level of connectivity across the workplace. Support for enhanced WiFi, Ethernet, USB and Bluetooth virtually guarantees that your device will connect with the other devices, PCs and servers already running in the enterprise. With this connectivity in place, employees will be able to remotely access Microsoft Outlook via Microsoft Air Sync. And the ability to view Adobe and Microsoft Office files will help them stay current on business developments.

            Sample device types

            Human machine interface (HMI)
            The devices provide the ability to monitor automated processes, such as manufacturing, to safegueard against diminished product quality or equipment breakdowns
            RFID scanners
            Speed the completion of common tasks such as inventory, shipping and receiving with these devices
            Medical devices
            Sonograms and other medical devices enable doctors to monitor a baby’s health in utero and send images to researchers in real time via a wireless network
            GPS devices
            Help people stay on course to their destination with these navigation devices

            News: Building the intelligent car of the future
            [Microsoft feature story, May 7, 2013]
            Microsoft: Working with automotive industry to design an updateable car that’s easier to use and responds to the driver’s needs.

            In the 1920’s, carmakers started offering an accessory that would revolutionize the driving experience: the radio. While tooling down the road you could tune into the nightly newscast, a live jazz performance or the seventh game in the series. It provided a connected experience that replaced the steady drone of the four liter under the hood with the soaring notes of Duke Ellington’s bugle or the crack of Babe Ruth’s bat as the ball hurtled toward the right-field stands.
            Since then, the notion of the connected car has changed. Features such as streaming music from your smartphone and using voice commands to control the stereo and environment are standard equipment in many models. And Microsoft has a vision for in-car technology that takes us beyond the confines of the cockpit to what they call the intelligent car — a scenario in which telematics data can help improve the driving experience, and the design of the vehicle.
            Led by Group Program Manager Pranish Kumar, the Windows Embedded Automotive team is focused on fulfilling this vision and, in the process, developing an upgradeable technology solution that extends the useful life of the vehicle.
            Says Kumar: “The automotive industry faces a lot of unique challenges, perhaps first of which is that cars must be supportable for much longer than consumer electronics devices — 10 or 20 years, in most cases. I think we’ve developed a solid understanding of some of these challenges and how technology can address them, while providing drivers with a better experience.”
            Microsoft’s Pranish Kumar and his team work to develop reliable in-car experiences, not by sitting at a desk but by working behind the wheel of a fleet of test vehicles.

            A relationship built on experience and trust
            Microsoft’s involvement in the automotive industry stretches back 15 years to 1998 when the company partnered with Clarion to announce the Auto PC, a first-of-its-kind solution that gave drivers access to email, driving directions, paging and traffic alerts, and their entertainment system. And in 2003 Microsoft developed the Microsoft TBox, a telematics device that went on to power infotainment systems for a variety of carmakers.
            When it came to working directly with carmakers, Kumar says it was an uphill battle to gain their trust. Many had tried to design their own infotainment system and were convinced that it couldn’t be done in a shorter time than seven or eight years. Microsoft has since proven itself by reducing development time down to just two to three years.
            Kumar’s team also adopted the same level of rigor and many of the testing methodologies that carmakers use when conducting customer road tests. Making this change gave the team a “greater degree of confidence” that their development and reporting processes met the carmaker’s need and that the finished product would meet or exceed the driver’s expectations.
            From the connected car to the intelligent car
            For carmakers, the Promised Land lies in giving drivers the ability to access information and services anywhere they live, whether an app on their smartphones, a music file on their tablet at home, or customer contact information on their computer at work or in the cloud. Over time, members of the Windows Embedded Automotive team have earned a reputation for providing solid insight to help make these experiences a reality.
            Together with Kumar, Creative Director John Hendricks, Principal Program Manager Jay Loney, Partner Development Manager David Kelley, and Experience Designers David Walker and Melissa Quintanilha are part of a larger team developing and designing the future of Microsoft’s automotive technologies.
            Top Gear U.S.’s Tanner Foust talks with Microsoft engineers and designers about their vision for the future intelligent car.
            In doing so, they are moving away from a focus on creating in-dash technologies, such as the entertainment or navigation systems, to an emphasis on creating a solution that would power these technologies as part of an overall user experience. Taking this approach has given carmakers the ability to provide periodic updates that refresh the driving experience and extend compatibility to the latest consumer devices.
            In the future Microsoft wants to take that experience a step further. Whereas today consumers demand a car that’s more connected — to their phones, their music and their services — Windows Embedded Automotive is focused on designing intelligent cars that respond to the driver’s needs.
            One example that Kumar cites involves the difficulty of pairing new phones, which is one of the most frequent problems facing car owners. According to IDC, 722 million smartphones were shipped globally in 2012, a 46.1 percent increase over the previous year.[1] As demand for smartphones continues, ensuring compatibility between new models and infotainment systems will remain a challenge.
            A Windows Embedded-based system could transmit data about the unsuccessful pairing to Microsoft and overnight a solution could be identified and downloaded to the car. When the owner gets in his car the next morning, his phone would automatically pair. Over time, that same data could be used to design a user experience that’s not only easier to use but that performs tasks on your behalf, such as tuning to your favorite station or rescheduling a meeting due to traffic delays.
            Drivers also stand to gain from the availability of data. Many vehicles contain sensors that monitor factors such as speed, braking, fuel consumption, tire pressure and environmental conditions. Drivers can already use this information to assess their performance and get recommendations on how to improve fuel efficiency or vehicle maintenance.
            Using the same data, carmakers could augment the existing battery of tests that are part of their proving process. So in addition to putting a vehicle through the environmental extremes of Northern Sweden or California’s Death Valley, they could evaluate its performance in day-to-day conditions. Engineers and product planners could get a head start on the next year’s model through insights around where design improvements are needed or where a car has been over-engineered. They could even fine tune an engine over-the-air to improve fuel economy of the current model year.
            Kumar believes that many of the systems are already in place to make this vision a reality. Using technologies such as Windows Update, cars could be automatically updated — in much the same way as smartphones automatically update when you activate them. And the combination of big data and machine learning could lead to cars that develop an understanding of your preferences and driving behavior to become more responsive to your needs.
            “We’ve come a long way in terms of creating a product that works reliably and meets the quality standards of the automotive industry. And we’re continuing our work with carmakers to reach the full potential of in-car technology,” says Kumar. “Through a combination of software, hardware and user-centric design, we believe that car owners will experience driving like never before possible.”
            [1] IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, Jan. 24, 2013

            See also: Maximizing Internet Explorer in Windows Embedded Compact 7 [Windows Embedded blog, June 11, 2012]

            Windows Embedded Compact has a customized version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer named Internet Explorer (IE) for Embedded. This powerful browser can be used in a number of ways in an embedded system to enhance the functionality of the system. This post will discuss the various ways to tune, customize and even embed IE for Embedded inside embedded applications.
            IE for Embedded is a customized version of Internet Explorer 7 for the desktop with performance enhancements from IE 8 added as well. Specifically, the JScript engine brought from IE 8 provides a 400% performance improvement over the original IE 7 scripting engine. In addition gesture support along with zoom and pan support is in this browser.
            Internet Explorer for Embedded is fundamentally an HTML rendering engine. As such, the user input surrounding the engine, (the “chrome”) isn’t really part of IE for Embedded. Windows Embedded Compact comes with two examples of IE for Embedded; one with classic “Windows” controls and the other one with the chrome rendered with the XAML-driven, Silverlight for Embedded framework. Both of these examples come with the source code that demonstrates how to host the IE control. They also both illustrate that almost all the functionality of these Browsers is contained within the control itself. The chrome only provides input from the user and a platform for returning feedback.
            The classic browser example, IESample, supports a favorites list, browser history and URL completion. It incorporates an internet control panel that can tune how the browser connects to the web as well as setting security settings. The XAML-based browser, IEExr, has a vastly different look and feel. However, it too handles a favorites list, history and control pane. IEExr even supports tabbed browsing using a thumbnail page to switch between pages. The reason the two examples have similar features is that most of the functionality, is incorporated in the IE ActiveX control itself.
            …

            Silverlight for Windows Embedded (Windows Embedded Compact 7) [MSDN Library, Jan 23, 2013]

            Microsoft Silverlight for Windows Embedded is a native (C++) UI development framework for Windows Embedded Compact powered devices that is founded on Microsoft Silverlight 3. You can use Silverlight for Windows Embedded to do the following:

            • Separate programming logic and UI design.
            • Define visual UIs for applications in XAML.
            • Add, modify, and customize the UI at run time.
            • Create interactive multimedia UIs.
            • Collaborate with designers who use Microsoft Expression Blend 3 projects.
            • Simultaneously develop applications for Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Silverlight for Windows Embedded with a common UI defined in XAML files.
            Silverlight for Windows Embedded is compatible with Silverlight 3 XAML and provides a set of equivalent classes for supported XAML elements. For information about Silverlight 3, see http://www.silverlight.net/.
            Silverlight for Windows Embedded is also compatible with existing Windows Embedded Compact window controls, so you can use your existing window controls.
            To add this feature to your OS, see Silverlight for Windows Embedded Catalog Items and Sysgen Variables.
            For reference information, see Silverlight for Windows Embedded Reference.

            …

            For step-by-step guidelines and code examples to help you learn how to create a UI by using Silverlight for Windows Embedded, see Silverlight for Windows Embedded Application Development.
            For recommendations on which hardware to use with Silverlight for Windows Embedded, see Silverlight for Windows Embedded Hardware Recommendations.

            More information:
            – Differences Between Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Silverlight for Windows Embedded [MSDN Library, Jan 23, 2013]
            – Silverlight for Windows Embedded Application Development [MSDN Library, Jan 23, 2013]

            Microsoft Silverlight for Windows Embedded is a “UI development framework” for “embedded devices” and is based on Microsoft Silverlight for the desktop browser. By using Silverlight for Windows Embedded, you can create an application that supports features such as storyboard animations, transformations, interactive controls, a layout system, and a visual tree.
            Silverlight for Windows Embedded is a native C++ development framework in which you can design a UI for the shell and applications for a Windows Embedded Compact device. You can use Microsoft Expression Blend 3 to quickly design a UI in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), which you can then convert, or you can build your application from scratch in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 by using one of the Smart Device project templates. In the native C++ source files for your application, you can use the rest of the features of Windows Embedded Compact 7, including any existing window controls.
            By using Silverlight for Windows Embedded, you can create a UI that provides advanced visual effects for your Windows Embedded Compact device shell and applications. Silverlight for Windows Embedded makes this possible by supporting a subset of Silverlight XAML elements and by supplying a set of C++ classes that provide access to these elements.

            – Graphics and Performance in Silverlight for Windows Embedded (Windows Embedded Compact 7) [MSDN Library, Jan 23, 2013]
            – Hardware Acceleration in Silverlight for Windows Embedded (Windows Embedded Compact 7) [MSDN Library, Jan 23, 2013]

            Many modern device platforms include on-board graphics processing units (GPUs) with two-dimensional or three-dimensional capabilities or both. Microsoft Silverlight for Windows Embedded provides support for using a GPU to accelerate certain types of animations. Hardware acceleration is accomplished by using the GPU (rather than the CPU) to do some critical composition steps in the rendering process. Silverlight for Windows Embedded supports hardware-based acceleration of graphics for both Microsoft DirectDraw and OpenGL.
            For information on how to implement hardware acceleration, see Implement Hardware Acceleration for Graphics in Silverlight for Windows Embedded [Reference].

            With Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 Now Available [Somasegar’s blog on MSDN, April 4, 2013]

            It includes support in Blend for SketchFlow, WPF 4.5, and Silverlight 5.

            which according to ANNOUNCING VISUAL STUDIO 2012 UPDATE 2 CTP 2 [Blend Insider, Jan 30, 2013]

            Blend for Visual Studio [as part of a consolidated designer/developer offering retained only from previous Expression products that were phased out with the Visual Studio 2012] now support WPF, Silverlight and SketchFlow projects in the same version of Blend (support for these was previously available only as a standalone Preview release of Blend). With this CTP release, Blend now supports developing Windows Store, Windows Phone, WPF and Silverlight apps without needing to have multiple versions of Blend on the same machine. The table below highlights the various platforms that are now supported in Blend for Visual Studio 2012:

            TARGET PLATFORM

            VERSIONS SUPPORTED

            SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

            Windows Store XAML and HTML

            Windows 8

            Windows 8

            Windows Phone

            Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 7.5

            Windows Phone 8 SDK

            WPF

            3.5, 4.0, 4.5

            		  

            Silverlight

            4, 5

            		  

            SketchFlow

            WPF 4.0 and Silverlight 4

            Visual Studio 2012 Premium or higher

            …

            Additional details:
            – in Silverlight 5 Beta – available now! [Silverlight Team blog on MSDN, April 22, 2011] for Silverlight 5 Available for Download Today [Silverlight Team blog on MSDN, Dec 9, 2011]
            – in What’s New in Silverlight for Windows Phone [MSDN Library] (which is part of Silverlight for Windows Phone [MSDN Library])

            Silverlight for Windows Phone OS 7.1 is based on Silverlight 4. That means if you create a new Silverlight for Windows Phone application that targets Windows Phone OS 7.1, you can take advantage of several new features. You can still write applications that target Windows Phone OS 7.0, but to take advantage of the new features, you must target Windows Phone OS 7.1. Applications that target Windows Phone OS 7.0 will run on devices running Windows Phone OS 7.1. This topic introduces some of the new features and improvements in Silverlight for Windows Phone.

            – in What Version is Windows Phone Mango? [Shawn Wildermuth blog, Aug 19, 2011]

            In finishing up my new Windows Phone book, I had to deal with the confusing version problem. There are three version numbers to be aware of:

            • Windows Phone 7.5
            • Windows Phone OS 7.1
            • Windows Phone SDK 7.1

            So what is Mango? It comes down to this:

            • Windows Phone 7.5: The marketing name of the phone. This is the phrase you’ll see in the ads to consumers.
            • Windows Phone OS 7.1: The name of the actual operating system. When you create a new application in Visual Studio (or upgrade an existing one), you’ll see this version.
            • Windows Phone SDK 7.1: The name of the Mango tools.

            So get your nomenclature right and stop being confused.

            – Features Differences Between Silverlight and Silverlight for Windows Phone [MSDN Library]
            – Implementation Differences Between Silverlight and Silverlight for Windows Phone [MSDN Library]

            Microsoft betting on boosting Windows RT demand with top level ARM SoCs from its SoC partners, Windows 8.1 enhancements, Outlook addition to the Office 2013 RT and very deep tactical discounts to its OEM partners for tablet offerings of more value and capability

            June 6, 2013 3:38 pm / 1 Comment on Microsoft betting on boosting Windows RT demand with top level ARM SoCs from its SoC partners, Windows 8.1 enhancements, Outlook addition to the Office 2013 RT and very deep tactical discounts to its OEM partners for tablet offerings of more value and capability

            … especially valuable for small businesses, and even enterprises of different, larger sizes thanks to new enhancements in manageability, networking, and security announced at TechEd North America 2013 (see “Cloud first” from Microsoft is ready to change enterprise computing in all of its facets [this same ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ blog, June 4, 2013]).

            Relevant excerpts from Nick Parker, Tami Reller, Antoine Leblond and Steve Guggenheimer: COMPUTEX 2013 Keynote Transcript [Microsoft, June 5, 2013]

            The full record of the keynote from Notebookitalia which contains the below excerpts between [10:49] and [19:50] as indicated.

            Tami Reller, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Windows:

            [10:49] Bringing the power of Windows to tablets is a really big part of the vision of Windows 8 and of Windows RT, really a new class of tablets that offers more value and capability than today’s tablets. […]

            [15:00] Windows tablets are an important part of the Windows 8 vision, and Windows tablets do more.

            Completing that promise of do more, I’m pleased to announce that starting with the back-to-school lineup, and in some cases even earlier, Windows x86 tablets will come with Office. That’s Word, that’s Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in the box. We’re making that possible through new OEM offerings that were introduced earlier this spring.

            Even with the value of Office built-in to these Windows tablets, these new offerings are going to allow our partners to build opening price point tablets, as well as great premium tablets.

            Additionally, we’ve opened up support for small tablets with Windows 8, and we’ll do more with Windows 8.1. You’ve seen the first of those tablets here at COMPUTEX. Congratulations to Acer on their announcements earlier this week.

            And coming with 8.1, building on our support for small tablets, we’re really committed to completing the scenario, including full portrait support.

            One of the top requests from Windows RT customers has been Outlook. I’m very pleased to announce that with the Windows RT 8.1 update Microsoft Outlook will be in-box.

            With 8.1 we’re again embracing the very latest technology, and the very latest on the silicon roadmap. Specifically this includes Bay Trail-T, Qualcomm 8974 [one of Snapdragon 800 SoCs coming in commercial devices of H2 2013, see more details in Snapdragon 800 Product Brief], and NVIDIA T40 [or Tegra 4 first in the already announced HP SlateBook x2 to be available in August 2013].

            And we’re expanding our ARM program to provide more component flexibility, creating more opportunities for partners to build competitive ARM tablets running Windows. [17:15 …]

            [19:10] Windows 8.1 is easy for our customers to get. It’s free to Windows RT and Windows 8 customers so that whether a customer has Windows 8 today or is buying a PC or a tablet or any other device in the near future, it will be one click away and very easy to get Windows 8.1. We’ll deliver it through the Windows Store, including the preview, which will come at the end of June. And the final product will be available later this calendar year. [19:50 …]

            New ecosystem opportunities, Windows 8.1 updates shared at Computex [Blogging Windows from Microsoft, June 5, 2013]

            Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of Windows program management joined Tami and other top Microsoft executives on stage to give our very first public demo of the upcoming Windows 8.1 update – touching upon many of the exciting improvements Antoine highlighted in his blog post from last week. You can see some of the highlights of what to expect in Windows 8.1 for yourself in this short demo video featuring Jensen Harris from the Windows User Experience Team:

            Jensen Harris from the Windows Team shows some highlights of what to expect in Windows 8.1 coming later this year as a free update for Windows 8 customers. http://bit.ly/10OM2Th

            Additionally, Tami announced that Outlook 2013 RT will be coming to Windows RT tablets as part of Windows 8.1. Windows running on ARM architectures has enabled an exciting new category of mobile-first, instant-on tablets that are thin and lightweight, with amazing battery life. We know that the addition of Outlook for those using ARM-based Windows devices such as the Surface RT, Dell XPS 10, Lenovo Yoga 11, and ASUS VivoTab RT as well as new tablets to come in the future has been a popular request from consumers and businesses alike. As Tami said in her keynote address, we’ve listened and Outlook will be joining the other Office applications currently available on Windows RT, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

            Our commitment to Windows on ARM doesn’t stop with the addition of Outlook 2013 RT. We announced a number of other enhancements with Windows 8.1, earlier this week at TechEd North America, including new manageability, networking, and security capabilities that will make Windows RT an even more compelling option for enterprises.

            Eight questions about Windows 8 for Microsoft manufacturing chief Nick Parker [PCWorld, June 5, 2013] 

            IDG: So you just announced you’ll be including Outlook with the next version of Windows RT, what was the thinking behind that?

            NP: Outlook is one of those apps people love, and when you start thinking about RT in the small business environment, or for heavy email users, Outlook is one of those high value solutions. That was the one we got the most feedback about.

            IDG: The reception for Windows RT has been a bit lukewarm, what are some of the reasons for that and to what extent will adding Outlook will improve the situation?

            NP: If you look at what we did with RT—it’s completely new silicon, a new hardware platform, and Windows 8 is a new OS. So first you just have a natural growth curve when you’re starting at zero. Then you start seeing new apps appear, the killer apps that people want, like Outlook. And the ecosystem gets more familiar with it—they learn how to code to it and how to certify parts for it.

            We get so used to the tremendous success we’ve had on PCs for years, you just think you can flip a switch and the platform’s going to change. I think it’s just the incremental growth of a new platform. And we should be a bit humble about how we go to market and talk about the new capabilities. I think we could maybe have inspired people a bit more with some of the RT devices and some of our marketing.

            IDG: There’s a lot of downward pressure on tablet pricing—Asus showed an Android tablet this week for $129. Do you expect to see Windows 8 tablets getting down to those sort of prices?

            NP: That’s a question to ask our OEMs [original equipment manufacturers, or basically PC makers]. I think people are prepared to pay for value and we see tablets with higher price points having better capabilities and features. I think buyers are getting smart about what’s good quality. But OEMs will choose their own prices.

            imageThe Acer Iconia W3-810 tablet

            IDG: We saw the first 8-inch Windows tablet launch this week from Acer. What are some of the things you’re doing to provide a better Windows experience on those smaller devices?

            NP: For any device you can hold in one hand, one of the things you need is portrait mode—so, the ability for the apps to work in the same way, to move and to flow nicely. And for our OEMs, we’re giving them the ability to have buttons on the side of the device, because when you’re holding it in one hand you might want to push a button on the side. You have to make the OS extensible. So those are the types of things.

            IDG: Will that all be part of Windows 8.1?

            NP: Yes, we talked about that today.

            IDG: I’ve never thought of Windows as being designed for smaller screens; the netbook experience wasn’t particularly great. What are you doing to improve the software experience?

            NP: In terms of how the display scales up and down, and in terms of the zooming capabilities—as soon as the preview [of Windows 8.1] comes out you should play with it.

            IDG: There’s a tremendous variety of form factors out there right now—all kinds of laptops and tablets and convertibles. When you look ahead a few years, do you expect them to coalesce around a few winning designs or will there always be that much variety?

            NP: In terms of capabilities, I think touch is going to be the new standard. People aren’t going to want to carry around hundreds of devices. You’ll have a phone, and I think the phablet is an interesting space. But for two-in-one detachables—I’m seeing the interest in those ramp. People want the best of both worlds. You can have a tablet and sit there and surf, then you plug it into a keyboard and you’re off working.

            IDG: Is the keyboard here to stay, or will people eventually get used to typing on touchscreens?

            I think the keyboard is here to stay, you’ve got that physical feedback. You may see a lot of innovation around keyboards but I think they’re here to stay.

            Google search on “Computex Windows ARM discount” between June 5 and 6 was yielding the following items:
            – One year after debut, Windows RT is a Computex no-show | The Verge | OSNews | I4U News
            – New ecosystem opportunities, Windows 8.1 updates shared at Computex | Blogging Windows [from Microsoft]
            – Microsoft to include Outlook app with update to Windows 8 RT | ARN [Australia]
            – Microsoft Aims to Lure More Users to Windows | WSJ.com
            – Microsoft To Give More Tablet Makers Windows 8 Discounts | NASDAQ.com | 4-Traders | Capital.gr
            – Microsoft to Offer Discounted Windows and Office for Small Tablets | AllThingsD | CELLIFONE.com
            – AMD breaks from Windows exclusivity, adopts Android and Chrome OS | Facepunch.com
            – Forget Haswell: Why tablet processors mean more to Intel at Computex | The USA News Online 
            – Computex 2013: low-cost tablets, high-res laptops steal the show | Techgoondu
            – Microsoft says Outlook is coming to Windows RT this year | ZDNet
            – Microsoft demonstrates Windows as a platform for small tablets, touch and mobility at Computex 2013 | Virtualization Journal [replica of Microsoft press release]

            Windows RT is a Computex no-show:

            Three days into Computex Taipei, Asia’s biggest computer show, not a single manufacturer has announced a Windows RT device. … The Computex show floor has been dominated by devices running Windows 8 on Haswell and other chips from Intel, but ARM-powered units have been conspicuous in their absence.

            However, the upcoming Windows 8.1 update and its RT counterpart could provide a shot in the arm to the fledgling OS. Qualcomm has pledged support for RT 8.1 with its new Snapdragon 800 processor, which president and COO Steve Mollenkopf described in a presentation today as offering “about 75 percent better performance than the S4 Pro.”

            The Verge has heard that manufacturers may be holding back RT devices for Qualcomm’s new chip and the 8.1 update, which is also designed to improve the experience on smaller-screened devices.

            include Outlook app with update to Windows 8 RT:

            Outlook will be included with version 8.1 of Windows RT, previously dubbed Windows Blue, Microsoft announced at the Computex trade show in Taipei on Wednesday. The 8.1 update is scheduled for release later this year as a free update to Windows 8.

            “We’re always listening to our customers and one piece of feedback was that people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets,” Microsoft said. […]

            Support for RT from hardware makers has been limited, however, with several PC makers, such as Acer, Asustek Computer and Hewlett-Packard, not yet supporting the OS.

            Microsoft hopes to change that by addressing one of the criticisms of Windows RT — that it doesn’t include a version of its popular Outlook email client. Nvidia CEO Jen Hsun Huang has been vocal about the importance of adding Outlook to RT.

            “If Outlook were to show up on RT, my life would be complete,” he said recently, lamenting the slow sales of Windows RT tablets. “I am one Outlook away from computing nirvana. Outlook god, please…”

            Lure More Users to Windows:

            Until now, people with Windows RT devices—which use different kinds of computer chips than those common in personal computers—have only been able to use a new type of email app that has been panned by users.

            A Microsoft executive, speaking at the Computex computer trade show in Taiwan, also acknowledged the company is cutting the prices it charges computer makers for Microsoft software.

            The executive, Nick Parker, didn’t detail the size of the software discounts. But people familiar with Microsoft’s pricing strategy have said for Windows RT devices, Microsoft is cutting by two-thirds the cost to license Windows and Office software, or roughly $100 before marketing rebates Microsoft offers to PC makers.

            Microsoft’s discounts apply to tablets smaller than 10.1 inches, Mr. Parker said. The company said it started offering discounts to some tablet makers in April.

            The discounts and addition of Outlook underscore how hard Microsoft is trying to boost the appeal of devices that run Windows RT, a product whose development marked a major break from company tradition. […]

            “This is an exciting development that we believe will deliver a much more robust and full-featured experience to Windows RT users,” wrote Mark Aevermann, an Nvidia product manager, in a blog post.

            Microsoft executives have said they would push harder to bolster sales by explaining more clearly the attributes of Windows RT and ARM chips.

            “We are very committed to ARM,” said Tami Reller, the Windows chief financial officer and chief marketing officer, in an interview last month.

            Windows executives also recently suggested Windows RT devices might in the future lose the dual modes that have been a polarizing feature of the new Windows.

            Windows 8 and Windows RT devices operate in both a traditional Windows “desktop” and a new mode that looks and functions more like a smartphone screen. The Windows executives, Jensen Harris and Antoine Leblond, suggested in a May interview that it might be appropriate to junk desktop mode entirely on Windows RT devices.

            Windows 8 Discounts:

            Nick Parker, vice president of Microsoft’s OEM division, said at the Computex trade show in Taipei Wednesday that the Redmond, Wash. company is now expanding its discount program to include tablets that run on Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 running on ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH, ARM.LN) chips. The discount will also apply to an upgraded version of its Windows 8 system dubbed Windows 8.1. The discounts will only apply on tablets that are between 7 and 10.1 inches. The executive declined to comment on the size of the discounts but Mr. Parker said they will come in the form of a cut in licensing fees and free Office software for hardware makers.

            Microsoft said it started offering discounts to some tablet makers in April and there is no specific time frame for when the discounts might end.

            The Wall Street Journal reported in early March, citing people familiar with the situation, that Microsoft had been offering price breaks on its Windows 8 and Office software to help spur the development of small, touch-enabled laptop computers.

            In the latest discount program, tablets with screens bigger than 10.1 inches will not be eligible for the discount, Mr. Parker said. But he didn’t elaborate.

            Analysts said the discounts could help bring down retail prices of smaller Windows tablets and help Microsoft better compete with Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG).

            Discounted Windows and Office for Small Tablets:

            Second, Microsoft is cutting some sort of deal with computer makers that want to bundle Windows 8 and Office Home and Student onto a seven- or eight-inch tablet. Microsoft isn’t going into detail on what it is charging PC manufacturers, but it is clearly low enough to enable some pretty inexpensive tablets.

            The first of these tablets to be announced, Acer’s Iconia W3, has a $379 sticker price. That’s pretty darn cheap for a machine that includes full-blown Windows and Office.

            Microsoft isn’t saying which other computer makers may also be working on small tablets, but with the PC market struggling, it seems reasonable to think we will see a number of such tablets in short order.

            And while Microsoft’s bundle program appears limited to small tablets, one could conceivably hook up the tiny tablet to a monitor and keyboard and use it as a home PC.

            low-cost tablets, high-res laptops steal the show:

            Since Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Asus’ Nexus 7 came out last year, the idea of a cheap, small tablet has taken hold like few expected. This year, the cheap is going to get cheaper, with Asus’ MeMo Pad HD7 starting from just US$129 for an 8GB version.

            image

            Now, this may not be as cheap as some models you’d find in Shenzhen, but this model from Asus will win over many users looking for an affordable but well-made tablet.

            The new MeMo Pad HD7 also seems like an updated version of the successful Nexus 7. There is the 1,280 x 800 screen, now coupled with a quad-core Arm Cortex A7 CPU, and a microSD card slot to pop in memory cards, which the Nexus 7 did not have. No idea of when this is coming, but expect to save some money for a budget tablet this holiday season. […]

            An interesting idea, which may not turn out to be a major trend, is small Windows tablets. Acer surprised many visitors with its 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, probably the first such mobile option.

            The Iconia W3 runs an Intel Atom chip, has 2GB RAM and either 32GB or 64GB storage. The 1,280 x 800 resolution is not too bad on the small screen.

            image

            What’s a little hard to see is the Windows desktop, when you fire up your traditional Windows programs, like Excel. During a quick hands-on, I can tell that the screen was too small for serious editing. Don’t even think of sharing programs on the screen. It’s just too small.

            Which leaves you in mostly the Metro touch interface on Windows 8. Sadly, there aren’t many apps here yet, compared to either an Apple iPad mini or an Android tablet.

            Not just that, while the US$379 asking price isn’t unreasonable for the hardware, the question is on usage. If you’re using the machine mainly as a small tablet, Android tablets are getting cheaper all the time, as Asus’ MeMo Pad HD7 shows.

            Outlook is coming to Windows RT:

            Owners of existing RT devices will receive the updates for free.

            Despite weak sales of its own ARM-powered Surface and even more tepid support from hardware partners, Microsoft doesn’t appear to be backing away from Windows RT. The addition of Outlook will undoubtedly convince some previously recalcitrant business buyers that Windows RT tablets make sense, as will the announcement at the Tech-Ed conference this week of management tools that allow greater control over Windows RT devices. And Microsoft also announced support for additional types of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) on Windows RT.

            But there are still dealbreakers that stand in the way of widespread deployments of Windows RT. Office 2013 RT has many of the same features as its x86/x64 counterpart, but it lacks the ability to handle custom macro code. In addition, some features are missing from the RT programs, including the ability to embed audio and video in OneNote notebooks.

            And Office is the only desktop app that Microsoft has officially ported to Windows RT. Third-party developers don’t have that option, which means any business that requires a third-party desktop app or a browser plugin other than Adobe Flash is out of luck. Likewise, Windows RT still doesn’t support some widely used third-party VPN clients.

            There’s also the pesky issue of licensing. The version of Office included with Windows RT is Office Home and Student 2013, which is licensed for noncommercial use only. If you want to stay in the good graces of Microsoft’s licensing agreement, you need to add commercial use rights, through a volume license or by way of a subscription to a business edition of Office 365.

            Today’s announcement is also noticeably silent on the question of when Microsoft plans to release native tablet versions of its Office programs, for both Windows 8.1/RT as well as alternative platforms like the iPad and Android tablets. The fact that the desktop version of Outlook is a key part of this fall’s update suggests that Office for tablets won’t appear until 2014, and one recent rumor says late 2014 is the likely target date for those apps.

            Windows as a platform for small tablets [Microsoft press release replicated]:

            “We want to be the best partner to all hardware manufacturers, from the way we engage and invest on new product designs to the experience we jointly deliver to customers,” Parker said. “This new wave of Windows devices from our partners, combined with our software, apps and services, reflects that commitment.”

            Most notable of the devices Parker showed were the new 7-inch and 8-inch Windows tablets: the Acer Iconia W3 that launched on June 3 in Taipei, and three other small tablets from top original device manufacturer (ODM) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners expected to ship for the holiday season. These small tablets provide a Windows experience with Office Home & Student 2013 delivering even more options to experience all that Windows can offer in a smaller form factor. […]

            Tami Reller, chief financial officer and chief marketing officer of Microsoft’s Windows Division, joined Parker onstage … “Windows 8.1 furthers the bold vision of Windows 8 by responding to customer feedback and adding new features and functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing’s potential,” Reller said.

            As part of this commitment, Reller announced that Outlook 2013 RT will be available on Windows-based ARM tablets with the Windows 8.1 update later this year. “Windows on ARM is a core part of our strategy today and moving forward, and the addition of Outlook further enriches this world of new on-the-go opportunities for partners and customers,” Reller said.

            “Cloud first” from Microsoft is ready to change enterprise computing in all of its facets

            June 4, 2013 7:03 pm / 2 Comments on “Cloud first” from Microsoft is ready to change enterprise computing in all of its facets

            … represented by these alternative/partial titles explained later on in this composite post:
            OR Choosing the Cloud Roadmap That’s Right for Your Business [MSCloudOS YouTube channel, June 3, 2013]
            OR Microsoft transformation to a “cloud-first” (as a design principle to) business as described by Satya Nadella’s (*) Leading the Enterprise Cloud Era [The Official Microsoft Blog, June 3, 2013] post
            OR Faster development, global scale, unmatched economics… Windows Azure delivers [Windows Azure MSDN blog, June 3, 2012] which is best summarized by Scott Guthrie (*) as the following enhancements to Windows Azure
            OR as described by Brian Harry (*) in Visual Studio 2013 [Brian Harry’s MSDN blog, June 3, 2013]
            OR as described by Brad Anderson (*) in TechEd 2013: After Today, Cloud Computing is No Longer a Spectator Sport [TechNet Blogs, June 3, 2013]
            OR as described by Quentin Clark (*) in SQL Server 2014: Unlocking Real-Time Insights [TechNet Blogs, June 3, 2013]
            OR as described by Antoine Leblond (*) in Continuing the Windows 8 vision with Windows 8.1 [Blogging Windows, May 30, 2013], and continued by Modern Business in Mind: Windows 8.1 at TechEd 2013 [June 3, 2013] from Erwin Visser (*) describing some of the features that businesses can look forward to in Windows 8.1
            OR putting all this together: Microsoft unveils what’s next for enterprise IT [press release, June 3, 2013]

            First watch how this whole story was presented in the keynote to TechEd North America 2013 on June 3, 2013:

            Brad Anderson was the keynote speaker so besides the overall topic and his two particular topics he is taking care of all the introductions/recappings to detailed/particular parts delivered by other executives from Microsoft Server & Tools Business as well. His keynote is starting at [3:18]. He first invites Iain McDonald to deliver the Windows 8.1 Enterprise presentation starting at [6:36] in the video. After that at [28:57] Brad is talking about “Empower people-centric IT” based on “Personalized experience”, “Any device, anywhere” and “Secure and Protected” leading to System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 + Windows Intune which are demonstrated from [38:00] to [46:50] by Molly Brown, Principal Development Lead for those products. Bringing consistence experience across PCs, iOS devices and Android devices supporting the BYOD trend for client device managers. Then he starts talking about “Enable modern business applications” based on “Time to market”, “Revolutionary technology” and “Organizational readiness” by focusing on “Rapid lifecycle”, Multi-device”, “Any data, any size” and “Secure and avalable”. Then comes (at [50:00]) a current state-of-the-art overview of the Windows Azure business and a customer testimonial from a budget airliner Easy Jet at [52:10] about moving to the “allocated seating mode” for which they indeed required the peak load support capability of Windows Azure to meet the sudden rush of customer reservations for things like putting everything on sale at slashed down prices. He then at [56:45] invites Scott Guthrie to talk about the Windows Azure application platform leading to announcements like “Windows Azure per minute pricing” and “Windows Azure MSDN offer”. Brian Harry replaces Guthrie on the stage (at [1:05:02]) to continue the same topic with the upcoming Visual Studio 2013 offering a number of new additions for team development. Brad is back at [1:14:40] to talk about “Unlock insight from any data” based on “Data explosion”, “New types and sources of data” and “Increasing user expectations” by focusing on “Easy access to data”, “Powerful analytics for all” and “Complete data platform”. To shed specific details on that he invites Quentin Clark at [1:16:44] who is talking about the upcoming SQL Server 2014 and joined by his marketing partner Eron Kelly demonstrating the new things coming with that product. At [1:36:15] Brad Anderson is back to talk about how to “Transform the datacenter” based on “Cloud options on demand”, “Reduced cost and complexity” and “Rapid response to the business”. First he talks about the cloud platform itself (as an infrastructure) exploiting a customer testimonial from Trek Corporation at [1:39:24]. Then at [1:41:24] he announces Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2, followed with Windows Azure Pack announcement encompassing a number of things which ar demonstrated at [1:44:44] by Clare Henry, Director of Product Marketing. At [1:49:25] Brad is back to talk about the fabric of this infrastucture for which he also invites at [1:51:30] Jeff Wolser, Principal Program Manager for looking into the storage, live migration, HyperV replica etc. From [2:01:27] Brad is delivering the final recap.

            The final recap by Brad Anderson well represented the story shown in the keynote:

            1. [2:03:20] Microsoft’s cloud vision is the Cloud OS in which they have 4 promises:
              image
              which was fully covered in the keynote (actually in that order) and
            2. [2:03:50] with the new announcements demonstrating execution on those promises:
              image

            Then here is the alternative/partial information which became also available:

            OR Choosing the Cloud Roadmap That’s Right for Your Business [MSCloudOS YouTube channel, June 3, 2013]

            Introductory information: Built From the Cloud Up [MSFTws2012 YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2012]

            Experience Microsoft’s vision for the Cloud OS with Satya Nadella (*) and see how it is made real today with Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure. Learn more at http://microsoft.com/ws2012

            OR Microsoft transformation to a “cloud-first” (as a design principle to) business as described by Satya Nadella’s (*) Leading the Enterprise Cloud Era [The Official Microsoft Blog, June 3, 2013] post:

            Two years ago we bet our future on the cloud and quietly refocused our 19 billion-dollar software business by completely transforming our products, culture and practices to be cloud-first. We knew the journey would be long and challenging with plenty of doubters. But we forged ahead knowing that the cloud transition would change the face of enterprise computing. […]

            To enable this transformation we had to make deep changes to our organizational culture, overhauling how we build and deliver products. Every one of our division’s nearly 10,000 people now think and build for the cloud – first. […]

            We are already seeing this bet deliver substantial returns. Windows Azure is going through hyper-growth. Half the Fortune 500 companies are using Windows Azure. We have over 1,000 new customers signing up every day and over 30,000 organizations have started using our IaaS offering since it became available in April. We are the first multinational company to bring public cloud services to China. Ultimately we support enormous scale, powering some of the largest SaaS offerings on the planet.

            (*) Satya Nadella is President, Server & Tools Business, a US$19 billion division that builds and runs the company’s computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services. The whole above mentioned post contains the email he sent to employees about the progress they’ve made completely transforming Microsoft products, culture and practices to be cloud-first.

            Introductory information: Enable Modern Apps [MSFTws2012 YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2012]

            Scott Guthrie (*) demonstrates how Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure provide the world’s best platform for modern apps. Learn more at http://microsoft.com/ws2012

            OR Faster development, global scale, unmatched economics… Windows Azure delivers [Windows Azure MSDN blog, June 3, 2012] which is best summarized by Scott Guthrie (*) as the following enhancements to Windows Azure:

            Windows Azure: Announcing New Dev/Test Offering, BizTalk Services, SSL Support with Web Sites, AD Improvements, Per Minute Billing [ScottGu’s blog, June 3, 2013]

            • Dev/Test in the Cloud: MSDN Use Rights, Unbeatable MSDN Discount Rates, MSDN Monetary Credits
            • BizTalk Services: Great new service for Windows Azure that enables EDI and EAI integration in the cloud
            • Per-Minute Billing and No Charge for Stopped VMs: Now only get charged for the exact minutes of compute you use, no compute charges for stopped VMs
            • SSL Support with Web Sites: Support for both IP Address and SNI based SSL bindings on custom web-site domains
            • Active Directory: Updated directory sync utility, ability to manage Office 365 directory tenants from Windows Azure Management Portal [regarding this read also: Making it simple to connect Windows Server AD to Windows Azure AD with password hash sync [Active Directory Team Blog, June 3, 2013]] 
            • Free Trial: More flexible Free Trial offer
            (*) Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President (CVP) of Program Management leading the Windows Azure Application Platform Team in the Server & Tools Business

            OR as described by Brian Harry (*) in Visual Studio 2013 [Brian Harry’s MSDN blog, June 3, 2013]

            Today at TechEd, I announced Visual Studio 2013 and Team Foundation Server 2013 and many of the Application Lifecycle Management features that they include. … I will not, in this post, be talking about many of the new VS 2013 features that are unrelated to the Application Lifecycle workflows. Stay tuned for more about the rest of the VS 2013 capabilities at the Build conference. […]

            We are continuing to build on the Agile project management features (backlog and sprint management) we introduced in TFS 2012 and the Kanban support we added in the TFS 2012 Updates. With TFS 2013, we are tackling the problem of how to enable larger organizations to manage their projects with teams using a variety of different approaches. … The first problem we are tackling is work breakdown. … We are also enabling multiple Scrum teams to each manage their own backlog of user stories/tasks that then contributes to the same higher-level backlog. […]

            We’ve been hard at work improving our version control solution. … We’ve added a “Connect” page to Team Explorer that makes it easier than ever to manage the different Team Projects/repos you connect to – local, enterprise or cloud. …We’ve also built a new Team Explorer home page. …The #1 TFS request on User Voice. … So, we have introduced “Pop-out Team Explorer pages”. …  Another new feature that I announced today is “lightweight code commenting”. […]

            As always, we’ve also done a bunch of stuff to help people slogging code every day. The biggest thing is a new “heads up display” feature in Visual Studio that provides you key insights into your code as you are working. We’ve got a bunch of “indicators” now and we’ll be adding more over time. It’s a novel way for you to learn more about your code as you read/edit. … Another big new capability is memory diagnostics – particularly with a focus on enabling you to find memory leaks in production. […]

            In addition to the next round of improvements to our web based test case management solution, today I announced a preview of a brand new service – cloud load testing. […]

            At TechEd today, perhaps my biggest announcement was our agreement to acquire the InRelease release management product from InCycle Software. I’m incredibly excited about adding this to our overall lifecycle solution. It fills an important gap that can really slow down teams. InRelease is a great solution that’s been natively built to work well with TFS. […]

            With TFS 2013 we are trying a new tact to facilitate that called “Team Rooms”. A Team Room is a durable collaboration space that records everything happening in your team. You can configure notifications – checkins, builds, code reviews, etc to go into the Team Room and it becomes a living record of the activity in the project. You can also have conversations with the rest of your team in the room. It’s always “on” and “permanently” recorded, allowing people to catch up on what’s happened while they were out, go back and find previous conversations, etc. […]

            (*) Brian Harry, Microsoft Technical Fellow working as the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server (TFS).

            Introductory information: Empower People Centric IT [MSFTws2012 YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2012]

            Brad Anderson (*) shows how Windows Server 2012 helps enable personalized experiences across devices. Learn more athttp://microsoft.com/ws2012

            OR as described by Brad Anderson (*) in TechEd 2013: After Today, Cloud Computing is No Longer a Spectator Sport [TechNet Blogs, June 3, 2013]

            We are now delivering on our vision with a wave of enterprise products built with this cloud-first approach: Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2 and the update to Windows Intune bring cloud-inspired innovation to the enterprise, and enable hybrid scenarios that cannot be duplicated anywhere in the industry.

            With this new wave, our partners and customers can do four key things:

            • Build a world-class datacenter without barriers, boundaries, or limitations.
            • Use a Cloud OS to innovate faster and better than ever before.
            • Embrace and control the countless ways users circumvent IT, but still enable productivity.
            • Get serious about the cloud with a partner who takes the cloud seriously.

            These developments shatter the obstacles which once stood in the way of turning traditional datacenters into modern datacenters, and which inhibited the natural progression to hybrid clouds. These hybrid scenarios are especially exciting – and Microsoft’s comprehensive support for them sets us apart from each and every other competitor in the tech industry.

            (*) Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President (CVP) of Program Management leading the Windows Server and System Center Group (WSSC) in the Server & Tools Business. The rest of his above post will shed more light on the Microsoft achievements delivered in his sphere of activity. See also his In the Cloud blog for more details.

            Follow-up information: Transform the Datacenter [MSFTws2012 YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2012]

            Bill Laing (*) shows how Windows Server 2012 helps increase agility and efficiency in the datacenter. Learn more athttp://microsoft.com/ws2012
            (*) Bill Laing, Corporate Vice President (CVP) for Server and Cloud [Development]. Read also his Announcing New Windows Azure Services to Deliver “Hybrid Cloud” [Windows Azure blog, June 6, 2012] post.

            Introductory information: Webcast: From Data to Insights [sqlserver YouTube channel, April 2, 2013]

            To better understand the impact of big data on the future of global business, Microsoft hosted an exclusive webcast briefing, “From data to insights”, produced in association with the Economist. In the webcast, you’ll hear from Tom Standage, digital editor of the Economist, on the social and economic benefits of mining data, followed by a moderated discussion featuring two Microsoft data experts, VP/Technical Fellow for Microsoft SQL Server Product Suite, Dave Campbell, and Technical Fellow, Server and Tools, Raghu Ramakrishnan, for an insider’s view of the trends and technologies driving the business of big data, as well as Microsoft’s big data strategy. To learn more about Microsoft big data solutions, visithttp://www.microsoft.com/bigdata

            OR as described by Quentin Clark (*) in SQL Server 2014: Unlocking Real-Time Insights [TechNet Blogs, June 3, 2013]

            The next version of our data platform – SQL Server 2014 – is a key part of the day’s news. Designed and developed with our cloud-first principles in mind, it delivers built-in in-memory capabilities, new hybrid cloud scenarios and enables even faster data insights. […]

            Today, we’re delivering Hekaton’s in-memory OLTP in the box with SQL Server 2014. For our customers, “in the box” means they don’t need to buy specialized hardware or software and can migrate existing applications to benefit from performance gains. … SQL Server 2014 is helping businesses manage their data in nearly real-time. The ability to interact with your data and the system supporting business activities is truly transformative. […]

            Insert: Edgenet Gain Real-Time Access to Retail Product Data with In-Memory Technology [MSCloudOS YouTube channel, June 3, 2013]

            To ensure that its customers received timely, accurate product data, Edgenet decided to enhance its online selling guide with In-Memory OLTP in Microsoft SQL Server 2014.

            End of Insert

            Delivering mission critical capabilities through new hybrid scenarios SQL Server 2014 includes comprehensive, high-availability technologies that now extend seamlessly into Windows Azure to make the highest level of service level agreements possible for every application while also reducing CAPEX and OPEX for mission-critical applications. Simplified cloud backup, cloud disaster recovery and easy migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines are empowering new, easy to use, out of the box hybrid capabilities.

            We’ve also improved the AlwaysOn features of the RDBMS with support for new scenarios, scale of deployment and ease of adoption. We continue to make major investments in our in-memory columnstore for performance and now compression, and this is deeply married to our business intelligence servers and Excel tools for faster business insights.

            Unlocking real-time insights Our big data strategy to unlock real-time insights continues with SQL Server 2014. We are embracing the role of data – it dramatically changes how business happens. Real-time data integration, new and large data sets, data signals from outside LOB systems, evolving analytics techniques and more fluid visualization and collaboration experiences are significant components of that change. Another foundational component of this is embracing cloud computing: nearly infinite scale, dramatically lowered cost for compute and storage and data exchange between businesses. Data changes everything and across the data platform, we continue to democratize technology to bring new business value to our customers.

            (*) Quentin Clark, Corporate Vice President of Program Management leading the Data Platform Group. The rest of his above post emphasizes the great progress of the Microsoft SQL Server for which he also includes the below diagram:
            image

            Introductory information: Selling Windows 8 | Windows 8 business apps as big bet [msPartner YouTube channel, March 1, 2013]

            We recently sat down to talk Windows 8 with partners Scott Gosling from Data#3, Danny Burlage from Wortell and Carl Mazzanti from eMazzanti Technologies. In a conversation led by Erwin Visser (*), Windows Commercial, and our own Jon Roskill and Kat Tillman we discussed the business potential of Windows 8 and why apps are key. In this segment, learn why Windows 8 business apps are a big bet.

            TechEd North America 2013 – Windows 8.1 Enterprise Build 9415 [lyraull [Microsoft Spain] YouTube channel, June 4, 2013]

            During the keynote address, Iain McDonald, partner director of program management for Windows, [starting at [6:36]] detailed key business features in the recently announced Windows 8.1 update — including advances in security, management, mobility and networking — to offer the best business tablets with the most powerful operating system for today’s modern business needs.

            OR as described by Antoine Leblond (*) in Continuing the Windows 8 vision with Windows 8.1 [Blogging Windows, May 30, 2013]

            Windows 8.1 will advance the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of PCs, tablets, and a range of industry devices, and the experiences customers — both consumers and businesses alike — need and will just expect moving forward. It’s Windows 8 even better. Not only will Windows 8.1 respond to customer feedback, but it will add new features and functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing’s potential.

            Windows 8.1 will deliver improvements and enhancements in key areas like personalization, search, the built-in apps, Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity. Windows 8.1 will also include big bets for business in areas such as management and security – we’ll have more to say on these next week at TechEd North America. Today, I am happy to share a “first look” at Windows 8.1 and outline some of the improvements, enhancements and changes customers will see. […]

            (*) Antoine Leblond, Corporate Vice President (CVP) of Windows Program Management. His above post from last Thursday was continued by Modern Business in Mind: Windows 8.1 at TechEd 2013 [June 3, 2013] from Erwin Visser (*) describing some of the features that businesses can look forward to in Windows 8.1 such as

            Networking features optimized for mobile productivity. Windows 8.1 improves mobile productivity for today’s workforce with new networking capabilities that take advantage of NFC-tagged and Wi-Fi [Miracast etc.] connected devices […]

            Security enhancements for device proliferation and mobility.Security continues to be a top priority for companies across the world, so we’re making sure we continue to invest resources to help you protect your corporate data, applications and device […]

            Improved management solutions to make BYOD a reality. As BYOD scenarios continue to grow in popularity among businesses, Windows 8.1 will make managing mobile devices even easier for IT Pros […]

            More control over business devices. Businesses can more effectively deliver an intended experience to their end users – whether that be employees or customers. … Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry – Our offering for Industry devices like POS Systems, ATMs, and Digital Signage that provides a broader set of device lockdown capabilities. […]

            On June 26, at the Build developer conference in San Francisco, Microsoft will release a public preview of Windows 8.1 for Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry. Upgrading to Windows 8.1 is simple as the update does not introduce any new hardware requirements and all existing Windows Store apps are compatible. […]

            (*) Erwin Visser, Senior Director of Windows Commercial Business Group

            OR putting all this together: Microsoft unveils what’s next for enterprise IT [press release, June 3, 2013]

            New wave of 2013 products brings it all together for hybrid cloud, mobile employees and modern application development.

            NEW ORLEANS — June 3, 2013 — At TechEd North America 2013, Microsoft Corp. introduced a portfolio of new solutions to help businesses thrive in the era of cloud computing and connected devices. In today’s keynote address, Server & Tools Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson and fellow executives showcased how new offerings across client, datacenter infrastructure, public cloud and application development help deliver the most comprehensive, connected enterprise platform.

            “The products and services introduced today illustrate how Microsoft is the company that businesses can bet on as they embrace cloud computing, deliver critical applications, and empower employee productivity in new and exciting ways,” Anderson said. “Only Microsoft connects the dots for the enterprise from ‘client to cloud.’”

            Today’s keynote featured several customers, including luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin. The company is an example of the many enterprises that use the full range of Microsoft products and cloud platforms for IT success.

            Driving Strategy and Innovation with the Power of the Microsoft Cloud OS Vision [MSCloudOS YouTube channel, June 3, 2013]

            Behind every luxury sports car produced by Aston Martin is a sophisticated IT Infrastructure. The goal of the Aston Martin IT team is to optimize that infrastructure so it performs as efficiently as the production line it supports. This video describes how Aston Martin has used cloud and hybrid-based solutions to deliver innovation and strategy to the business.

            “Our staff’s sole purpose is to provide advanced technology that enables Aston Martin to build the most beautiful, iconic sports cars in the world,” said Daniel Roach-Rooke, IT infrastructure manager, Aston Martin. “From corporate desktops and software development to private and public cloud, Microsoft is our IT vendor of choice.”

            Fueling hybrid cloud

            At TechEd, Microsoft introduced upcoming releases of its key enterprise IT solutions for hybrid cloud: Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014. Available in preview later this month, the products break down boundaries between customer datacenters, service provider datacenters and Windows Azure. Using them, enterprises can make IT services and applications available across clouds and scale them up or down according to business needs. Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 are slated to release by the end of calendar year 2013, with SQL Server 2014 slated for release shortly thereafter.

            With advances in virtualization, software-defined networking, data storage and recovery, in-memory transaction processing, and more, these solutions were engineered with Microsoft’s “cloud-first” focus, including a faster pace of development and release to market. They incorporate Microsoft’s experience running large-scale cloud services, connect to Windows Azure and work together to provide a consistent platform for powerful hybrid cloud scenarios. More information can be found at blog posts by Anderson about Windows Server and System Center and by Quentin Clark about SQL Server.

            Further showcasing Microsoft’s hybrid cloud advantage, today the company also announced the public preview of Windows Azure BizTalk Services for enterprise integration solutions, both on-premises and in the cloud. In addition, Windows Azure now offers industry-leading, per-minute billing for virtual machines, Web roles and worker roles that improves cloud economics for customers. More information is available at the Windows Azure blog.

            Windows 8.1: Empowering modern business

            During the keynote address, Iain McDonald, partner director of program management for Windows, detailed key business features in the recently announced Windows 8.1 update — including advances in security, management, mobility and networking — to offer the best business tablets with the most powerful operating system for today’s modern business needs.

            New networking features in Windows 8.1 aim to improve mobile productivity for today’s workforce, with system-on-a-chip (SoC)-integrated mobile broadband, native Miracast wireless display and near field communication (NFC)-based pairing with enterprise printers. Security is also enhanced in the new update to address device proliferation and to protect corporate data and applications with fingerprint-based biometrics, multifactor authentication on tablets and remote business data removal to securely wipe company data from a device. And improved management capabilities in Windows 8.1 give customers more flexibility with supported options such as System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and new mobile device management (MDM) solutions with third-party MDM partners, in addition to updated Windows Intune support.

            On June 26, at the Build 2013 developer conference in San Francisco, Microsoft will release a public preview of the Windows 8.1 update for Windows 8 and Windows RT customers. More information on new features found in Windows 8.1 for businesses, including updated Windows deployment guidance for businesses, is available on the Windows for your Business blog.

            Fostering modern application development

            Microsoft today also introduced Visual Studio 2013 and demonstrated new capabilities for improving the application lifecycle, both on-premises and in the cloud. A preview of Visual Studio 2013, with its new enhancements for agile portfolio planning, developer productivity, team collaboration, quality enablement and DevOps, is slated for release in the coming weeks, timed with the Build conference.

            Furthermore, Microsoft today announced an agreement to acquire InCycle Software Inc.’s InRelease Business Unit. InRelease is a leading release management solution for Microsoft .NET and Windows Server applications. This acquisition will extend Microsoft’s offerings in the application lifecycle management and DevOps market. More information is available on S. Somasegar’s blog.

            In addition, the company today announced new benefits that enable Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers to more easily develop and test more applications with Windows Azure. New enhancements include up to $150 worth of Windows Azure platform services per month at no additional cost for Visual Studio Professional, Premium or Ultimate MSDN subscribers and new use rights to run select MSDN software in the cloud.

            Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

            Read More: SQL Server, Brad Anderson, Enterprise, IT Professionals, BUILD, Cloud Computing, Windows Server 2012, S. Somasegar, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, Visual Studio, .NET, TechEd North America 2013, TechEd 2013

            ARM Cortex-A12 CPU cores and Mali-T622 GPU cores with Process Optimization Packs (POPs), plus Mali-V500 video block for mid-range mobile devices of the end of 2014

            June 3, 2013 9:47 pm / Leave a comment

            in order to cover (very competitively) the hole existing in ARM-based SoCs so far:

            Arm unveiled the Cortex A12 processor during a news conference at Computex in Taipei on June 3, 2013.

            AnandTech’s judgement about the Cortex-A12 announcement:

            … The Cortex A9 is too slow to compete with the likes of Intel’s Atom and Qualcomm’s Krait 200/300 based SoCs. The Cortex A15 on the other hand outperforms both of those solutions, but at considerably higher power and die area requirements. … The Cortex A15 island in Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa occupies 5x the die area as the A7 island, and consumes nearly 6x the power. In exchange for 5x the area and 6x the performance, the Cortex A15 offers under 4x the performance. It’s not exactly an area or power efficient solution, but a great option for anyone looking to push the performance envelope. Today, ARM is addressing that hole with the Cortex A12. …
            Asked at a Taipei news conference about the future of Intel’s x86 architecture, rival Arm said it still sees life in the platform.

            AnandTech’s judgement about Mali-T622 and Mali-V500 announcements:

            … The Mali-T622 is a 2-core implementation of the 2nd generation Mali-T600 GPU architecture that we first learned about with the 8-core T628. Each shader core features two ALUs, an LSU and a texture unit. … On the video front, the Mali-V500 video encode/decode block is a multi-core engine used for all video acceleration. The V500 allegedly supports up to 100Mbps High Profile H.264, although details are scarce on more specifics. ARM claims support for up to 120 fps 4K video decode with an 8-core V500 implementation. Mali-V500 also features a protected video path, necessary for gaining content owner support for high-bitrate/high-resolution video decode. The V500 also supports ARM’s Frame Buffer Compression (AFBC), a lossless compression algorithm that can supposedly reduce memory bandwidth traffic by up to 50%. There’s presently no frame buffer compression in Mali GPUs today, but ARM expects to eventually roll AFBC out to Mali GPUs as well.

            Announcement information from ARM:

            image
            • POP IP for the Cortex-A12 processor core 
            – The only implementation solution that is co-developed along with the processor itself
            – The processor RTL and the POP implementation feed off each other and are thoroughly co-optimized
            – Lower the risk to end customers and those designers starting from scratch with a new processor core
            – Save months of effort optimizing the implementation
            • POP IP for Mali-T622 GPU core 
            – Eliminates the iterative guess work required to find the most optimal implementation
            – Enables best-in-class PPA and frames per second metrics coupled with highly flexible implementation
            More information: POP IP for the Cortex-A12 Processor: Enabling the Next Billion Smartphones [June 3, 2013]
            image
            • New ground-up design for mid-range mobile
            – OoO, Dual-Issue, 11 stage dynamic length pipeline
            – Tightly integrated, high-performance NEON and FPU units
            • Perfectly balanced design for best efficiency
            – Highly optimized L1 and L2 memory sub-system
            – Ideal for current and upcoming mobile workloads
            • Flexible interface options to adapt for use-case
            – 128-bit AMBA ACE – System coherency with CPUs or GPUs
            – Accelerator Coherency Port (ACP) – I/O coherency with DMA
            – Peripheral Port – For low-latency peripherals elmiminating DDR traffic congestion
            More information: Cortex-A12: Diversification in the Mobile Market – Serving the Mid-Range [June 3, 2013]

            image
            • Smallest GPU Compute solution in the market
            – Renderscript Compute and OpenCL 1.1 Full Profile
            • 50% energy-efficiency improvements over Mali-T600 series
            • Richest user experience with OpenGL ES 3.0
            More information: Mali-T622 – Bringing Full Profile GPU Compute to mid-range devices [June 3, 2013]

            image 
            • 1080p60 HD encode/decode
            • Optimized for lowest cost and power
            – AFBC gives 50% lower memory bandwidth
            • TrustZone secure video path
            – Premium content protection
            More information: A new branch for the Mali family tree: Mali Video, featuring the Mali-V500  [June 3, 2013]

            ARM Targets 580 Million Mid-Range Mobile Devices with New Suite of IP [press release, June 3, 2013]

            News Highlights:

            • Faster time to market and less design risk with suite of IP including: 
              ARM Cortex-A12 processor, Mali-T622 GPU, Mali-V500 video solution and POP IP technology;
            • 580 million mid-range smartphones and tablets are forecast to be sold in 2015
            • Cortex-A12 processor delivers 40 percent more performance than Cortex-A9 and brings premium features such as virtualization to the mid-range mobile device market; efficiency profile also makes it ideal for DTV and home networking;
            • Cortex-A12 processor brings optimum performance and maximum efficiency of big.LITTLE processing to mid-range smartphones and tablets;
            • Mali-T622 GPU offers an efficient and qualified OpenGL ES 3.0 solution and smallest Full Profile GPU Compute solution, putting even greater compute power into the hands of more mobile users;
            • Mali-V500 video IP solution reduces system bandwidth and power, while enabling the protection of premium video content with TrustZone support.

            The essence is that the first Cortex-A12 based SoCs are expected by mid-2014
            – for mid-range devices (smartphones and tablets) in the $200 … $350 price range by late 2014 to early 2015  
            – with Cortex-A7/A15 architectural compatibity, thus in big.LITTLE configurations with either core, supporting 40-bit addressing (up to 1 TB) and virtualization
            – plus providing the highest efficiency in pairing with Cortex-A7 core
            – as the follow-up with +40% performance to the current SoCs for mid-range devices based on Cortex-A9 SoCs

            The SoC ramp-up of about one year or so is compared to not less than two years ramp-up for Cortex-A9 based SoCs. This is the result of significant progress with Process Optimization Pack technology of ARM which was first time developed along with the processor and GPU cores themselves. It is available now for TSMC 28HPM process technology for lead partners. Six of them are already starting their SoC design. Moreover it will also be available at GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28-SLP HKMG process technology in Q4 2013. So it is also first time as such complete sourcing from two foundries will be available for SoC vendors so early on. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is even going to achieve up to 70 percent higher performance in comparison to a Cortex-A9 processor core using 40nm process technology. Competition between those 2 foundries will understandably be very strong as the 2015 mid-range smartphone and tablet market is expected to be not less than 580 million units.

            In comparison the Cortex-A9 core was announced in October 2007 and released in 2008
            – now contributes to approximately one-third of all smartphone shipments worldwide
            – real development opportunities began in H2 2009 with possibility to go even against Intel Atom (source: Computex 2009 – Warren East Presentation [ARM Holdings, June 1, 2009]):
            image
            with improving Cortex-A9 performance on 45nm process achieved through:
            – 56% improvement from processor and physical IP optimisations
            – 44% improvement from other techniques
            The first SoC products based on 45nm technology came in 2011, namely:
            – NXP PNX 847x/8x/9x set-top box SoCs sampling in January 2010. However a month later the business related to these products was sold to Trident Microsystems (see the PNX8490/PNX8491 datasheet of February 2010) and as Trident had experienced continuing operating losses it filed for bankruptcy in January 2012. Its set-top box SoC business had been taken over by Entropic Communications, Inc. in April 2012. Although only the PNX8475 is currently offered by Entropic the original Cortex-A9 related SoC know-how is flourishing quite well there (see also: 1, 2, 3 and 4).
            – Samsung Orion application processor, later renamed into Samsung Exynos 4210 then further into Exynos 4 Dual, announced in September 2010 for sampling in Q4 2010 and mass production in H1 2011. It first came out with the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone announced in February 2011 for May 2011 delivery. Other Samsung smartphone and tablet products then followed.
            – Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 and OMAP 4440 (later renamed OMAP 4460) application processors announced in February 2009 for sampling in H2 2009 and expected production by the second half of 2010, but actually debuted a year later in February 2010 with sampling available and expected production in H2 2010. The first product based on OMAP 4430 was the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet announced in September 2010 for early 2011 availability but becoming available in June 2011 only. Smartphone products from Motorola (a lot, also a few tablets) and LG (a few) followed that, as well as a number of tablet products from Archos and most notably the Kindle Fire from Amazon, and the Nook from Barnes & Noble.

            ARM is representing and projecting the evolution of the market since then as follows:image
            More information about that was provided in:
            Cortex-A12: Diversification in the Mobile Market – Serving the Mid-Range [ARM Smart Connected Devices blog, June 3, 2013]

            Mobile devices have become indispensable in North America, Europe, and much of Asia, and are becoming the primary compute platforms for people in emerging markets. We are entering a new era of computing, the post-PC era. ARM® technology has been at the heart of the mobile revolution for over twenty years and continues to be the bedrock of all innovation and change in this space.
            Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are connecting billions of people. In 2013, we are expecting:
            – Over 1 billion smartphones forecasted to ship*
            – Smartphones for <$50 and Tablets >$800
            – Tablets out-ship notebook PCs
            What becomes clear when looking at mobile devices is that we are seeing segmentation into multiple markets, which is an opportunity for growth for ARM partners:
            – Premium devices: Price range > $400
            – Mid-range devices: Price range between > $200 and < $350
            – Entry-level devices: Price range up to $150image
            Source: Mixture of ARM and Gartner Estimates
            Premium smartphones and tablets receive a great deal of attention, but it is the entry-level and mid-range markets are expected to grow the fastest over the next years. ARM delivered the Cortex®-A7 processorin the fourth quarter of 2011, and it is now shipping in large volumes in low-cost, quad-core devices. It will be followed by the Cortex-A53 processor, which is soon to be released to lead partners. Both are high-efficiency processors, that are efficient by simple in-order eight stage pipelines which are highly efficient and tuned to deliver very good performance for their size. In the mid-range mobile device market, the industry had tremendous success with devices based on the higher-performance Cortex-A9 processor, which uses a partially out-of-order, nine stage pipeline to achieve high performance tuned to the power constraints of smartphones. The Cortex-A9 processor was released in 2008 and now contributes to approximately one-third of all smartphone shipments worldwide.
            The market segmentation is driving the diversification in mobile and resulting in many different requirements needed to achieve the highest performance and lowest power within a sustained thermal envelope. These requirements make it mandatory to provide the functionality previously available only in premium devices, but within the power budgets of mid-range devices. Looking at how to serve those markets, it is clear that one size does not fit all anymore.
            Today ARM is introducing the Cortex-A12 processor, the highest performance mid-range CPU that is specifically designed for the next-generation mid-range mobile market. The Cortex-A12 processor brings its own mix of high performance and energy efficiency to 2014 SoC designs: more performance than the Cortex-A9 processor with the same mobile-tuned power efficiency. The Cortex-A12 processor is designed to deliver the best mobile experience:
            – Highest performance at lowest power consumption and cost
            – Highest efficiency within mid-range thermal envelopes, i.e. achieve highest performance at uncompromised area
            – Premium feature set in mid-range mobile
            The Cortex-A12 processor is the successor to the Cortex-A9 processor and increases single-thread performance by 40 percent, while matching the best-in-class energy efficiency. Measured in 28nm, the Cortex-A12 processor is about 30 percent smaller in area compared to the Cortex-A9 processor in 40nm technology using the same configuration. Additionally, the Cortex-A12 processor brings today’s premium smartphone features into the mid-range, allowing new use cases and great mobile experiences. Some key added features include:
            – big.LITTLE™ processing enables the extension of the dynamic range of the Cortex-A12 processor with the addition of the Cortex-A7 processor
            – Virtualization and TrustZone® security support enabling new use cases like BYOD (bring your own device)
            – 1TB addressable memory, providing close to no boundaries on memory space
            The Cortex-A12 processor extends the performance capability in mid-range devices without sacrificing energy efficiency when combined with the Cortex-A7 processor as a big.LITTLE CPU subsystem. big.LITTLE processing provides a highly efficient, high-performance processing solution that can scale to many different use cases. The first iterations of big.LITTLE processing featured the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 processors for high-end solutions. Now, the Cortex-A12 processor is bringing big.LITTLE processing to increase the dynamic range of the mid-range by enabling SoC designers to push the Cortex-A12 processor further while using the Cortex-A7 processor to reduce power well below levels of the Cortex-A9 Processor. This results in an ideal combination of compute resource for efficient workload distribution, running lightweight tasks on the Cortex-A7 processor and high-performance tasks on the Cortex-A12 processor. Early results show up to 2x increased efficiency.
            Even though it is designed for mid-range smartphone and tablet devices, the Cortex-A12 processor leads with an excellent efficiency profile, making it an ideal fit for other use cases like home networking, residential gateway and auto infotainment systems.
            ARM has also designed the Cortex-A12 processor to work efficiently with a complimentary family of high performance, low power ARM CoreLink™ System IP components:
            image 
            The system diagram shown above illustrates the system IP components that will typically support the Cortex-A12 processor in a mobile SoC. To deliver effortless 1080p30 graphics with 1080p encode/decode the system also features a Mali™-T622 GPU supporting OpenGL/ES 3.0 and a Mali-V500 video accelerator.
            The CoreLink CCI-400 cache coherent interconnect provides an IO coherent channel with Mali and opens up a number of exciting possibilities for offload and acceleration of tasks. When combined with a Cortex-A7 processor (not shown) on the ACE port, CCI-400 also allows big.LITTLE operation with full L2 cache coherency between the Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors. Efficient voltage scaling and power management is enabled with the CoreLink ADB-400 enabling efficient DVFS control of the Cortex-A12 processor.
            CoreLink MMU-500 provides a hardware accelerated, common memory view for all SoC components and minimizes software overhead for virtual machines to get on with other system management functions. In this system, the Cortex-A12 processor also enjoys a secure, optimized path to memory to further enhance its market-leading performance with the aid of CoreLink TZC-400 TrustZone address space controller and DMC solution. All interconnect components and the ARM DMC guarantee bandwidth and latency requirements by utilizing in-built dynamic QoS mechanisms.
            ARM POP™ IP supports the physical implementation of the Cortex-A12 processor and Mali GPU to enable best power, performance, and area so critical to success in the highly competitive mid-range SoC market. ARM CoreSight™ debug and trace on-chip hardware, coupled with the ARM DS-5™ software development toolchain, enable the debug of random, time-related software bugs, and the non-intrusive analysis of critical areas of software. The ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5TM) toolchain also makes use of performance counters embedded in the processor, graphics processor and interconnect to enable system-wide optimization.
            The ARM Cortex-A12 processor is the highest-performance, mid-range CPU. It is specifically designed for the mid-range mobile market, and is broadly supported by a range of other ARM technology IP including ARM system IP, POP IP and development tools to enable ARM Powered® solutions that contribute to the very best user experience in terms of responsiveness and battery life. At the same time, it allows ARM partners to accelerate time to market for mid-range SoCs, while freeing development time to add their own differentiation. The Cortex-A12 is a highly tuned processor that will bring the performance of high-end mobile devices into mid-range smartphone and tablets, as well as into other great market opportunities we haven’t even considered.
            * Source: Bank of America
            Related Blogs:

            ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Optimize Next-Generation ARM Mobile Processors for 28nm-SLP Process Technology [press release, June 3, 2013]

            New ARM POP technology provides core-hardening acceleration for Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors
            Milpitas, Calif. and Cambridge, UK, June 3, 2013 – In conjunction with the launch of the ARM®  Cortex®-A12 processor, ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced new power, performance and cost-optimized POP™ technology offerings for the ARM Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors for GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. The Cortex-A12 processor was introduced by ARM today as part of a suite of IP targeting the rapidly growing market for mid-range mobile devices.
            The companies will combine ARM’s next-generation mobile processor and POP IP with GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP HKMG process solution, enabling a new level of system performance and power efficiency with the optimum economics necessary to serve the mid-range mobile device market.   The new initiative builds on the existing robust ARM Artisan® physical IP platform and POP IP for the Cortex-A9 processor already available on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP, signifying another milestone in the multi-year collaboration between ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES.
            Central to this increase in functionality for mid-range mobile devices is the new ARM Cortex-A12 processor. The Cortex-A12 processor provides a 40 percent performance uplift and direct upgrade path from the incredibly successful Cortex-A9 processor, while matching the energy efficiency of its predecessor. The Cortex-A12 processor provides best-in-class efficiency as a standalone solution, but additionally supports the innovative big.LITTLE™ processing technology with the Cortex-A7 processor, bringing this energy-efficient technology to the mid-range.  GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP process technology and associated ARM POP IP for the Cortex-A12 processor enables up to 70 percent higher performance (measured single-thread performance) and up to 2x better power efficiency in comparison to a Cortex-A9 processor using 40nm process technology. Designers can achieve even higher performance by trading off for lower power efficiency, depending on their application needs. Click here for more information on the Cortex-A12 processor.
            The newest POP technology enables customers to accelerate core-hardening of Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP HKMG process. POP IP for Cortex processors has successfully enabled ARM-based SoCs with more than 30 different licenses since being introduced over three years ago. POP IP is composed of three elements necessary to achieve an optimized ARM processor implementation: core-specific tuned Artisan physical IP logic libraries and memory instances, comprehensive benchmarking reports, and implementation knowledge that detail the methodology used to achieve the result, to enable the end customer to achieve the same implementation quickly and at low risk.
            “With 580 million mid-range smartphones and tablets forecast to be sold in 2015[i], consumers are increasingly looking for the right combination of performance, low power and cost effectiveness,” said Dr. Dipesh Patel, executive vice president and general manager, Physical IP Division at ARM. “With the Cortex-A12 processor and suite of IP announced today, ARM is delivering an optimized system solution leveraging the most innovative technologies available for this market. The POP IP solution on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP helps designers balance the performance, power and cost tradeoffs to achieve their targets for this growing market.”
            GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP technology is ideally suited for the next generation of smart mobile devices, enabling designs with faster processing speeds, smaller feature sizes, lower standby power and longer battery life. The technology is based on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ “Gate First” approach to High-K Metal Gate (HKMG), which has been in volume production for more than two years. The technology offers a combination of performance, power efficiency and cost that is ideally suited for the mid-range mobile market.
            “GLOBALFOUNDRIES is committed to a deep relationship with ARM to enable best-in-class solutions for our mutual customers. Our collaboration on the ARM Cortex-A12 processor implementation is a direct result of this focus and collaboration,” said Mike Noonen, executive vice president of Marketing, Sales, Design and Quality at GLOBALFOUNDRIES.
            GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ next-generation 14nm-XM FinFET technology is expected to bring another dimension of enhanced power, performance and area for ARM mobile processors. A Cortex-A9 processor implemented on 14nm-XM technology, using 9-track libraries, is projected to enable a greater than 60 percent increase in frequency at constant power, or a decrease of more than 60 percent in power consumption at constant performance, when compared to implementation on 28nm-SLP technology using 12-track libraries. Similar results are expected for Cortex-A12 processor implementations. Click here for more details on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 14nm-XM FinFet technology.
            For further discussions about GLOBALFOUNDRIES process technologies or ARM IP offerings please visit the companies’ respective exhibits at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 3-5, 2013 in Austin, Texas. ARM is located in booth 931, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES can be found at booth 1314.

            Deep technical evangelism and development team inside the DPE (Developer and Platform Evangelism) unit of Microsoft

            May 17, 2013 11:22 am / 3 Comments on Deep technical evangelism and development team inside the DPE (Developer and Platform Evangelism) unit of Microsoft

            It is a fantastic gig – we’re working with developers, designers, and IT pros from across the industry – from the consumer to enterprise to startups to hobbyists – helping them create amazing next generation apps, build the frameworks that make all this easier, and share our experiences with the community.

            [John Shewchuk, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, Chief Technology Officer for the Microsoft Developer Platform]

            Source: My New Gig [JohnShew‘s MSDN Blog, May 12, 2013] from which the following excerpts will add more information to the above mission statement:

            To do this work I have an incredible team with people like Eric Schmidt, who leads our consumer applications efforts and has done ground-breaking work on projects like [NBC’s] Sunday Night Football (which is up for a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Series).

            [In fact on May 7 the Sports Emmy was awarded, already 5th time from which the last four awards were won with the program using technology started with Silverlight 3.0 and IIS Smooth Streaming in 2009 for Sunday Night Football live streaming with highly advanced and customized viewing experience. This lead to a continously evolving and expanding cooperation which culminated on April 9th 2013 in the announcement that Microsoft Corp. and NBC Sports Group are partnering to use Windows Azure Media Services across NBC Sports’ digital platforms, including NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com and GolfChannel.com. The new alliance aims to deliver live and on-demand programming of more than 5,000 hours of sporting events plus Sochi 2014 Olympic Games for NBC Sports’ digital platforms. More details about that see later on.]

            Patrick Chanezon just joined us from VMware where he was driving their cloud and tools developer relations – he has a ton of expertise in the open source space which will be increasingly important given our new Azure IaaS support for Linux.

            … we also get to play with all the newest and coolest technologies we’re delivering to developers these days – everything from Windows to Xbox to Windows Phone – and we connect it to the latest cloud services from Azure, Office, and Bing.

            James Whittaker [now as Partner Technical Evangelist at Microsoft] – a known industry disruptor and incredible speaker joins us from Bing where he has been leading the development team making Bing knowledge available programmatically – many people may know him from his viral blog post on why he left Google for Microsoft.

            As far as John Shewchuk himself is concerned he is describing his latest achievement in the same post as:

            As many of you know, for the last few years I’ve been plugging away deep in the plumbing of enterprise identity and Reimagining Active Directory for the cloud.  It’s been a great experience and I couldn’t be more proud of all the cool stuff that has gone on across the industry to enable the world of claims-based identity and identity as a service.  Over the years I’ve gotten to know many identity leaders including Kim Cameron, Craig Burton, and Andre Durand and have worked with many other great people at companies like Shell, Sun, IBM, Google, and Facebook.
            Building on all this collaboration, just a few weeks ago here at Microsoft we reached a major milestone with the official release of Windows Azure Active Directory (AAD). Today all of Microsoft’s major organizational cloud services build on AAD – this includes Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics. AAD supports almost 3 million organizations through 14 global data centers with 99.97% availability.  This level of scale and availability is unprecedented for a turnkey identity management service – it’s a huge accomplishment.  Although I love the SaaS and scale aspects of AAD, I’ve spent my career working with developers – so I’m stoked that we have made all this available to developers through new technologies like the AAD Graph API.
            It is always sad to move on from a great project, but with the release of AAD it is an ideal time to transition and start a new role.  So I’m happy to announce that I’m headed to Microsoft’s Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) team, working for Steve Guggenheimer.  My role is to lead the team doing the deep technical evangelism and development here in DPE.

            If one adds to that John Shewchuk’s all contributions from his Experience profile on LinkedIn:

            Technical Fellow
            Microsoft
            March 2008 – Present (5 years 2 months)
            Current responsibilities include delivering Windows Azure Identity, Access, and Directory Services and defining platform strategy for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS).
            Recent deliverables include Windows Azure Access Control and Application Messaging / Service Bus Services, SQL Azure, and Active Directory.
            Member of the Server and Tools Business (STB) Technical Leadership Team. Key participant in the definition of overall technical and business strategy for several divisions across STB.
            Distinguished Engineer
            Microsoft
            2005 – 2008 (3 years)
            Delivered Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
            Responsible for Active Directory technical strategy. Worked to unify Active Directory product suite. Released Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
            Software Engineer
            Microsoft
            1996 – 2005 (9 years)
            Member of architecture team that drove the first and subsequent releases of .NET.
            Drove transformation of Visual Studio to enable web development.
            Authored and drove technical strategy for Web standards. Responsible for key cross-industry collaborations with IBM, Sun, and many others. Key participant in defining strategy for enterprise development
            Group Program Manager
            Microsoft
            1993 – 1996 (3 years)
            Drove the first release of Visual Studio.
            Delivered web development tools including Visual InterDev. Later these became the basis for Visual Studio web tools and web execution platform.
            Delivered advanced browser features including 2D layout and progressive rendering. Broad range of patents covering many core web technologies.
            Vice President and Founder
            Daily Planet Software
            1990 – 1993 (3 years)
            Microsoft acquired Daily Planet Software in Q4CY93 [and morphed it into “Blackbird,” the online-content authoring system for MSN].

            so after adding all those contributions, not only to Microsoft but to software engineering in general, only then one can really understand how much John Shewchuk is a true larger than life figure. Also note that Microsoft’s DPE unit never had such an outstanding contributor on its staff, not even the units organisationally preceding it (DRG (Developer Relations Group) formed in 1984, ADCU (Application Developer Customer Unit) introduced in 1997, evolved into DPE in October 2011). It is also the first time as Microsoft DPE has a developer related CTO organization properly staffed with excellent contributors. The size of this central to DPE team could be over 100 people and growing, this is the unofficial information. At the moment we know only the leadership figures of the CTO organization:
            – James Whittaker for the partner activities (as coming from his new LinkdIn title given above)
            – Patrick Chanezon “initially focused on the enterprise market” (as described by Chanezon in the below details)
            – Eric Schmidt leading the consumer applications efforts (as explicitly stated by Shewchuk above)

            So at this point we can understand this extremely important, we might say strategic addition to the DPE unit only via the professional stance of its leadership figures, including the leader of the team Shewchuk himself. This is why instead of the details sections I am providing here the following one:

            More light on the leaders of the new the deep technical evangelism and development team:

            – James Whittaker’s Quality Software Crusade from Academia to Microsoft, then Google and now back to Microsoft [this same ‘Experiencing the Cloud’ blog, March 14 – April 12, 2012]
            – James Whittaker‏ @docjamesw 8:19 AM – 8 Apr 13

            I gave a blunt, incendiary talk at MS. My punishment: they made it my day job. Watch out world, Microsoft just gave me a speaking role.

            – James Whittaker‏ @docjamesw 3:54 PM – 8 May 13

            I finally “met” the famous @maryjofoley …nice talking to you today.

            from which Mary Jo Foley published the following in her Microsoft builds a deep-tech team to attract next-gen developers [ZDNet, May 13, 2013]

            Whittaker’s most recent gig at Microsoft was development manager for the Microsoft knowledge platform as part of the Bing team. 

            “When Microsoft talks about devices and services, that’s a two-legged stool,” said Whittaker. The third leg is knowledge. We’re embedding knowledge into everything from Xbox, to Office, to third-party products.”

            Whittaker said “dev platform” is no longer simply the operating system and related application programming interfaces (APIs). It’s the whole ecosystem, he said, including information that Bing extracts from the Web, like catalogs, weather, and maps. The goal is to make this available inside applications built by both Microsoft and third-party developers. 

            “Actions can be performed on these entities. We have hundreds of millions of things we can provide that go beyond the blue links (in search engines),” Whittaker said.

            – A New Era of Computing [Channel 9 video of the ALM Summit 3 plenary session by James Whittaker, Jan 30, 2013], click on the image to watch (highly recommended)

            History will look back and identify September 2012 as the dawn of a new computing paradigm and the official end of the “Search-and-Browse” era [of the 2000s] that Google dominated. James Whittaker talks about this momentous event, shares some history about prior eras, and looks ahead to what this new era brings.

            image

            Explanation from the video:

            [19:58] September 2012 is “when total search volume went down first. We don’t need to search anymore. It turns out that if you search long enough you find a bunch of stuff, and you hav’nt to search for it anymore.”

            [21:00] “Apps are ingesting the web too. Apps are better at searching than browsers and search engines.”

            [22:08] “Apps are fundamentally a better way to search because they’re only looking at the part of the web you’ve been interested in. How do we know you are interested in? Because you are using the app.

            So our habits are changing and this era has ended.”

            In more than the middle [38:26 – 40:00] he is emphasizing the 3 “Experiences” out of Google’s current Top 10 revenue earners rather than “Apps” in the era “when the web goes away” as leading to “Data is currency” for the new era:

            image

            …

            In the very end of his presentation (from [46:09] to [52:20]), as forward looking “Know & Do” experience, he is describing and a kind of “screenshot demonstrating” the “I need a vacation” experience which should naturally start in one’s calendar and ending there as well.

            – Hello Microsoft! [Patrick Chanezon’s blog, May 13, 2013]

            On april 29th 2013, I joined Microsoft’s legendary Developer and Platform Evangelism team, where I will initially focus on the Enterprise market. I will report to Technical Fellow John Shewchuk, joining his new team of top-notch technical evangelists, like Xoogler James Whittaker and Microsoft veteran Eric Schmidt. Mary Jo Foley wrote a nice piece about our team on ZDNet today. I will be based in theMicrosoft San Francisco office.

            How did it happen?
            I spent most of my career competing with Microsoft, at Netscape, Sun, Google and VMware. Competition builds respect, competitors force you to question your assumptions and to constantly evolve. For many of my friends, this move came as a total shock. What made me open to the idea of joining Microsoft is a presentation from Scott Guthrie about Windows Azure at NodeConf 2012 last summer. He presented from a Mac laptop, launched Google Chrome, went to the Cloud9 IDE, edited a Node app pulled from Github, and pushed it to Azure from the cloud IDE: to me this indicated a real change of mentality at Microsoft, and a new openness. Clearly they had listened to what developers ask from a cloud platform. Later on, when my friend Srikanth Satyanarayana pinged me to start conversations with Microsoft, I was open to it. I met with Satya Nadella, and realized that our visions for where the cloud was going were very aligned. Further conversations with Scott Guthrie about Azure, John Shewchuk and Steve Guggenheimer about developer evangelism convinced me this was an adventure I had to take!
            Why Microsoft?
            Joining Microsoft boils down to 4 reasons: People, Learning, Technology, Impact.
            People: in my late 30′s I realized that the people you work with, for and around are as important as what you’re working on. Microsoft has many people I have admired from the outside, like Dare Obasanjo, Eric Meijer, Scott Guthrie, Jon Udell, Scott Hanselman, Jeff Sandquist, Andrew Shuman or Anders Hejlsberg. The team I join has a fantastic roster of A-players with whom I’ll have fun and from whom I will learn.

            image

            Learning: I’m a learner at heart. I am curious, I read a lot, and I like to learn from people I work with. I also love to share what I learned with others. My kids loved this book called My Friends, by Taro Gomi, which goes like this: “I learned to walk from my friend the cat, I learned to jump from my friend the dog…”.
            In my career it worked the same way: I learned algorithmic from my teacher Christian Vial, I learned internet protocols from my friend Nicolas Pioch, I learned open source from my friend Alejandro Abdelnur, I learned social media from my friend Loic Lemeur, I learned developer relations from my friend Vic Gundotra, I learned platform strategy and storytelling from my friend Charles Fitzgerald… I love doing developer relations, and my two mentors in this area over the past 8 years, Vic and Charles, both came from the Microsoft DPE team. I’m coming to the source for more learning. This team is more than a 1000 people worldwide, and over the past 10 years they defined what tech evangelism is about: they operate at a larger scale and cover a wider scope than any of the teams I worked with. I am very excited to join them.
            Technology: Windows Azure is Enterprise ready, more open than people think, and is a complete platform, from infrastructure to services, mobile and Big Data. Azure has matured a lot in the past few years, it covers IaaS, PaaS and Saas, their Paas service is multi-framework and multi-service, with a marketplace of add-ons, it has a mobile backend as a service for Windows Phone, iOS, Android and HTML5, and includes Hadoop and Big Data services. It is in production today, has been battle tested for years as the base for many Microsoft first party apps and services, and is ready for the Enterprise, with a true public/private/hybrid solution: with Windows Server 2013, System Center and Azure you can start building your hybrid cloud today.. The team ships important new features regularly, my favorite being the point to site and software vpn features announced a few weeks ago, which will drastically lower the barrier to create hybrid clouds. Azure is not a Windows/.NET only platform, it is more open than people give it credit for: you can provision Linux VMs, and the PaaS supports .NET, Java, PHP, Node, Python, Ruby, with open source (Apache 2 license) SDKs on Githuband an Eclipse plugin, built by the Microsoft Open Technologies team. Scott Guthrie gives a very good overview of Windows Azure in this video from the Windows Azure Conf 3 weeks ago.

            image

            Impact: as a kid, I was reading a lot of science fiction, and got my first computer (a TRS-80) when I was 10 years old. As I explain in many of my presentations (like Portrait of the developer as The Artist), my childhood dreams were to change the world through technology, and more specifically computers. My dreams are far from being fulfilled today: it is true that we have more powerful machines and software tools, and technology changed the world in many aspects, but machines are still hard to program, and software engineering needs to evolve to let us work at a higher level of abstraction.
            The move to a devices and services world is an important architecture change like we see every 20 years in the software industry. Cloud platforms have the potential to help developers build smarter applications faster, and change entire areas of the human experience. It has started to happen in the consumer applications space, but the next big wave of change is the consumerization of Enterprise IT, where developers and IT professionals can completely transform the way enterprises work, driving business value faster, enabling new capabilities and business models. My goal is to help them in this transformation, and Microsoft is the place where I can have the most impact.
            Here’s a quick video to summarize it all: developers, developers, developers, think big and look up at the sky, its color is Azure!
            Developers, Developers, Developers A homage to you, developers I interacted with around the world, in the past 8 years doing developer relations at Google and VMware. http://wordpress.chanezon.com/2013/05/10/goodbye-vmware/
            If you have never tried Azure, or have tried it a year ago, sign up for a free trial and give it a go! I hope to see many of you at the Build conference in June in San Francisco.

            – Mary Jo Foley published the following about Chanezon in her Microsoft builds a deep-tech team to attract next-gen developers [ZDNet, May 13, 2013]:

            “We’re at a deep architectural inflection point right now in the enterprise,” said Chanezon. “Devs need new ways of working, new apps and new frameworks. There’s the whole dev-ops movement, plus the move to become more agile.”

            Chanezon said he joined Microsoft because he felt the company’s new devices plus services strategy really embraces these changes. He said while Google had devices and services, too, it didn’t have the private/hybrid cloud component which Microsoft also brings to the enterprise-dev table. As a big believer in the power and potential contribution of open source, he said he was encouraged to see that Azure has become a very open-source-friendly platform.

            – Mary Jo Foley published the following about Schmidt in her Microsoft builds a deep-tech team to attract next-gen developers [ZDNet, May 13, 2013]:

            Schmidt joined DPE six years ago [as director of DPE’s Media and Advertising Initiatives team], bringing his media specialization to the media and entertainment, social and gaming verticals. These are “where people are thinking about attaching devices to a lifestyle,” he said. 

            A big target for Schmidt is mobile developers, specifically those writing for iOS and Android who may not know how their skills can be transferred to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. “We’re showing them how what they already know is correlated,” he said, while playing up the message that the iOS and Android gold mines are drying up.

            – Silverlight delivers online viewing experience for Sunday Night Football [Silverlight and Windows Phone SDK blog, Sept 10, 2009]

            The NFL and NBC will be delivering the entire Sunday Night Football season by using Silverlight 3.0 and IIS Smooth Streaming. The first game of the season will be broadcast tonight, with the Tennessee Titans vs. the Pittsburg Steelers. Game starts at 5:00pm PST and you can watch online for free: http://snfextra.nbcsports.com/.

            image

            Here are a few of the benefits Silverlight delivers:

            • A full screen video player that is capable of delivering 720p HD video. TV quality on the web.
            • A main HD video feed, plus 4 user-selectable alternate synchronized camera feeds that allows users to switch camera angles themselves. Your TV can’t do that.
            • Adaptive smooth streaming of live HD video, which enables the video player to automatically switch bitrates on the fly depending on networking/CPU conditions. No buffering/stuttering experience.
            • DVR support of the live video, including Pause, Instant Replay, Slow Motion, Skip Forward/Back. You can pause and rewind on live video.
            • Play-by-play data (touchdowns, fumbles, etc) inserted as tooltip chapter markers on the scrubber at the bottom allowing you to quickly seek to key moments. A smarter, contextual DVR.
            • Highlights of major plays created within minutes of the play. NBC is cutting on-demand highlights and publishing them on-the-fly with Smooth Streaming.
            • Sideline interviews with the players. No more channel surfing, you are one click away from additional content.
            • Game statistics. These are live stats coming directly in real-time from the NFL.
            • Game commentary and Q&A with the SNF hosts. Chat with the live TV broadcasters.

            Enjoy! http://snfextra.nbcsports.com/

            – Microsoft Silverlight and NBC Bring Winter Games to the Web in High Definition [Microsoft feature story, Feb 12, 2010]

            Microsoft Silverlight is the player of choice for NBC’s online viewing experience of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

            REDMOND, Wash. —Feb. 12, 2010 — NBC and Silverlight have once again teamed up to bring Winter Games coverage to the Web – this time in high definition.
            For the next 16 days, people all over the world will watch the Winter Games on television. Increasingly, they’ll be tuning in online as the world’s top athletes compete for gold and glory.
            NBC will once again use Silverlight, Microsoft’s fast-growing, smooth-streaming video and animation plug-in for browsers, to bring full coverage and highlights to NBCOlympics.com. In 2008 for Beijing, the NBC-Silverlight partnership yielded not only revolutionary Web coverage of a sporting event, but a record number of viewers: 52.1 million people logged on to watch 9.9 million hours of video.
            At that time the Silverlight platform was so new that NBC also offered Windows Media Player alongside it. After the success of Beijing and with nearly 50 percent of Internet-connected devices running Silverlight, NBC decided to consolidate on Silverlight for the Vancouver Games.

            imageMicrosoft employees Jason Suess (left) and Eric Schmidt take
            a break in an NBC production studio.

            In addition, NBC and Silverlight teams are working together on other major sporting events such as Wimbledon and NFL Sunday Night Football.

            “It’s really been amazing to see that partnership and friendship with NBC grow over the last year and a half,” says Jason Suess, principal technical evangelist for Silverlight. “I expect many more events as our partnership gets tighter and tighter.”
            With Silverlight, viewers can rewind and fast forward the action, or use pause and slow-motion. The player also scales the quality of the video to whatever a user’s machine can handle, delivering up to 720p – the highest resolution possible under current digital television standards.
            “After Beijing, what we heard loud and clear was if you can provide a higher quality experience, users will definitely spend more time in that experience,” Suess says.
            The Silverlight team also worked with NBC to provide special behind-the-scenes tools for the network, including the ability to insert mid-stream advertising, and a rough cut editor that allows NBC personnel to quickly edit and post highlights on the Web.
            “With Michael Phelps going for eight gold medals in Beijing, every time he’d win there would be a massive rush to the site to see him winning the latest gold,” Suess says. “The challenge there was for NBC to have the content on the site in time to meet the demand. Now editors can go in literally while a (video) stream is happening and cut a highlight.”
            Suess said the Winter Games are at a different scale from the massive Summer Games, with far fewer events and more niche sports. Still, Microsoft has worked hard to provide the most engaging photo and video experience possible, he says.

            – Silverlight Powered Emmy Nominated Sunday Night Football [Silverlight Team on Silverlight Blog, April 19, 2010]

            This NFL season, NBC thrilled football fans by broadcasting Sunday Night Football on 2 screens – television and online. And now, as a result of this great work, Sunday Night Football Extra and NBC Sports have been nominated for a 2010 Sports Emmy® Nomination! NBC Sports teamed with Microsoft Silverlight and Vertigo to design and develop a visual stunning, interactive online video experience. The Sunday Night Football Extra Player featured Microsoft Smooth Streaming technology providing a customized viewing experience that smoothly and automatically adjusted to individual users’ bandwidth and computer’s performance in real time. The SNF Extra Player also touted an interactive user experience featuring an unprecedented five synchronized camera angles all in true 720p HD, slow-motion replay, full DVR controls, real time key plays integration, real-time statistics, and live interaction with commentators.

            The Sports Emmy® Awards will be held in New York City on Monday, April 26, 2010, and will recognize outstanding achievement in sports television coverage. This nomination is really the culmination of the innovative thinking, hard work and dedication demonstrated by the team that NBC Sports, Vertigo and a select team of key partners brought together for Sunday Night Football Extra — and Silverlight is the engine that made it possible. If you want to learn more about the nomination, you can also visit Vertigo’s site at http://bit.ly/vertigo-snf.
            The Result?
            • Number of Games: 17 football games streamed via Silverlight
            • Average time tuned in: 29 minutes (about 24 minutes longer than average time spent tuning in on broadcast TV)
            • Number of Viewers: Over 2.2 million football fans tuned in on NBCSports.com to watch the Season live and in full HD
            • Hours of Video: Approximately 1 million hours of video streamed
            • Peak users: 38,500 total peak concurrent users
            • What technology made this possible😕 IIS 7, IIS Media Services and Silverlight Rough Cut Editor
            Tons of great information about how SNF came together online can be found in the case study and whitepaper live on Microsoft.com.
            The Sports Emmy® Awards will be held in New York City on Monday, April 26, 2010, and will recognize outstanding achievement in sports television coverage. This nomination is really the culmination of the innovative thinking, hard work and dedication demonstrated by the team that NBC Sports, Vertigo and a select team of key partners brought together for Sunday Night Football Extra — and Silverlight is the engine that made it possible. If you want to learn more about the nomination, you can also visit Vertigo’s site at http://bit.ly/vertigo-snf.

            – Interactive Media Player to Bring PDC to Developers Worldwide [Microsoft feature story, Oct 27, 2010]

            A new interactive media player will enable developers worldwide to virtually attend this week’s Professional Developers Conference at microsoftpdc.com. Using Silverlight and Windows Azure, Microsoft is providing many of the features NBC used when broadcasting the Olympics online.

            …

            With the player, Microsoft is introducing a new way of bringing a live, in-person event to a much broader audience, said Eric Schmidt, Microsoft’s senior director of Developer Platform Evangelism. “The goal is to narrow the gap between audience and speaker,” he said.

            Schmidt heads up the team that has helped stream a number of major events recently, including the 2010 U.S. Open Golf Championship, the 2010 Wimbledon Championship, and NBC’s Sunday Night Football. The team’s objective has been to reach large online audiences with immersive and interactive experiences. Along the way, they developed new ways of delivering multi-camera video and built new interactive models inside what has traditionally been just a video player. The team also built out frameworks so that customers and partners can create similar experiences leveraging Microsoft’s platform technologies in a turnkey manner.

            With the PDC10 virtual player, Microsoft is doing things it couldn’t have done just a few years ago, said Schmidt. All session content will be available live and on-demand in HD quality, and viewers will have the ability to pause and rewind the video at any point. They also can toggle back and forth between different camera feeds, allowing a viewer to cut between a presenter and the presentation material.

            The PDC player has a number of built-in interactive features. Real-time polling will enable speakers to query both the online and in-person audience for live feedback. Live Q&A will help the audience interact with the presenters while they’re delivering a session. And an inline Twitter feed will extend the conversation beyond the online player and into the Twitter domain.

            …

            – NBC SPORTS GROUP COLLECTS 11 SPORTS EMMY AWARDS, MOST OF ANY SPORTS MEDIA COMPANY [press release, May 7, 2013]

            London Olympics Garners Five Awards, Including Outstanding Live Event Turnaround

            Sunday Night Football Wins Fifth Consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Series; Super Bowl XLVI Wins for Outstanding Live Sports Special

            Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Pierre McGuire Honored

            NEW YORK – May 7, 2013 – NBC Sports Group won 11 Sports Emmy Awards, the most of any sports media company for the third straight year; the London Olympics received five Emmys, including Outstanding Live Event Turnaround; Super Bowl XLVII won for Outstanding Live Sports Special; Sunday Night Football won its fifth consecutive award for Outstanding Live Sports Series; and Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Pierre McGuire were all honored in their respective categories at the 34th Annual Sports Emmy Awards, presented tonight by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
            MARK LAZARUS, NBC SPORTS GROUP CHAIRMAN: “We could not be more proud of our dedicated team. Tonight is particularly special because we were recognized for our coverage of the London Olympics and the NFL, two properties that touch virtually everyone in the NBC Sports Group – and our on-air commentators. It’s rewarding to know that our talent continues to be recognized year in and year out by our peers.”
            Formed in January, 2011, the NBC Sports Group consists of NBC Sports, NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel, NBC Olympics, 11 NBC Sports Regional Networks, two regional news networks, NBC Sports Radio and NBCSports.com.
            NBCUniversal’s coverage of the London Olympics was honored with a total of five Emmy Awards in the following categories:
            • Outstanding Live Event Turnaround;
            • The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award – NBC, NBC Sports Network, NBCOlympics.com, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo;
            • Outstanding Technical Team Studio;
            • The Dick Schaap Outstanding Writing Award;
            • Outstanding New Approaches, Sports Programming – NBCOlympics.com.

            For the fifth consecutive year, NBC Sports won Outstanding Live Sports Series for Sunday Night Football. NBC Sports has now won the award in six of the last seven years, also winning in 2007 for its NASCAR coverage.

            NBC Sports was also honored with the Emmy for Outstanding Live Sports Special for its coverage of Super Bowl XLVI. NBC Sports also received the Emmy in this category for its coverage of Super Bowl XLIII.
            Bob Costas was awarded his 25th career Emmy and fifth consecutive for Outstanding Sports Personality-Studio Host. Costas hosted the London Olympics, is the host Football Night in America, NBC Sports’ acclaimed NFL studio show, and Costas Tonight, which airs on NBC Sports Network. He won the Emmy in the same category last year for his work on Football Night.

            Al Michaels was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play, for his work on Sunday Night Football. For Michaels, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 32ndAnnual Sports Emmy Awards in 2011, this marks his seventh career Emmy Award.

            Cris Collinsworth was awarded his fifth consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality-Sports Event Analyst. This marks Collinsworth’s 14th career Emmy, which includes wins in 2007 and 2008 in the Studio Analyst category for work on Football Night in America.
            Pierre McGuire, NBC Sports Group’s “Inside the Glass” analyst for its NHL coverage, was awarded his first career Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality – Sports Reporter.

            – Microsoft Teams Up With NBC Sports Group to Deliver Compelling Sports Programming Across Digital Platforms Using Windows Azure [press release, April 9, 2013]

            New alliance aims to deliver live and on-demand programming of more than 5,000 hours of sporting events plus Sochi 2014 Olympic Games for NBC Sports’ digital platforms.

            LAS VEGAS — April 9, 2013 — Today at the National Association of Broadcasters Show, Microsoft Corp. and NBC Sports Group announced they are partnering to use Windows Azure Media Services across NBC Sports’ digital platforms, including NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com and GolfChannel.com.

            Through the agreement, which rolls out this summer, Microsoft will provide both live-streaming and on-demand viewing services for more than 5,000 hours of games and events on devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs. These services will allow sports fans to be able to relive or catch up on their favorite events and highlights that aired on NBC Sports Group platforms.
            Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager of digital media at NBC Sports Group discusses how they use Windows Azure across their digital platforms.
            “NBC Sports Group is thrilled to be working with Microsoft,” said Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager of digital media at NBC Sports Group. “More and more of our audience is viewing our programming on Internet-enabled devices, so quality of service is important. Also, our programming reaches a national audience and needs to be available under challenging network conditions. We chose Microsoft because of its reputation for delivering an end-to-end experience that allows for seamless, high-quality video for both live and video-on-demand streaming.”
            NBC Sports Group’s unique portfolio of properties includes the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, “Sunday Night Football,” Notre Dame Football, Premier League soccer, Major League Soccer, Formula One and IndyCar racing, PGA TOUR, U.S. Open golf, French Open tennis, Triple Crown horse racing, and more.
            “Microsoft is constantly looking for innovative ways to utilize the power of the cloud, and we see Windows Azure Media Services as a high-demand offering,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president at Microsoft. “As consumer demand for viewing media online on any available device grows, our partnership with NBC Sports Group gives us the opportunity to provide the best of cloud technology and bring world-class sporting events to audiences when and where they want them.”
            Microsoft has a broad partner ecosystem, which extends to the cloud. To bring the NBC Sports Group viewing experience to life, Microsoft is working with iStreamPlanet Co. and its live video workflow management product Aventus. Aventus will integrate with Windows Azure Media Services to provide a scalable, reliable, live video workflow solution to help bring NBC Sports Group programming to the cloud.
            NBC Sports Group and iStreamPlanet join a growing list of companies, including European Tour, deltatre, Dolby Laboratories Inc. and Digital Rapids Corp., which are working with Windows Azure to bring their broadcasting audiences or technologies to the cloud.
            In addition to Media Services, Windows Azure core services include Mobile Services, Cloud Services, Virtual Machines, Websites and Big Data. Customers can go tohttp://www.windowsazure.com for more information and to start their free trial.

            – Mary Jo Foley published the following about Shewchuk, the head of the team in her Microsoft builds a deep-tech team to attract next-gen developers [ZDNet, May 13, 2013]:

            “‘The platform’ is now a collection of capabilities across all of our products,” said John Shewchuk, the head of the recently formed technical evangelism and dev team. Our job is “helping devs stitch together solutions with these technologies.”

            “Devs” also is a much broader target audience for Microsoft than it once was. Back in the early DPE days, devs meant professional, full-time programmers. The target audience for Microsoft’s new deep-tech team includes anyone who writes a consumer, business or hybrid application. That means startups, enterprise customers and top consumer and business independent software vendors (ISVs).

            The Microsoft toolbox from which devs can choose to mix and match includes many technologies that didn’t exist a decade, or even just a few years, ago. They include everything from Windows Azure technologies, to Bing programming interfaces and datasets, to the WinRT framework underlying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Microsoft’s next Xbox, Kinect, Windows Phones, Surfaces, Perceptive Pixel multitouch displays are among the targets for these technologies.

            “This is a playground. We get to work with stuff from all the different Microsoft business groups,” said Shewchuk. “It’s like geek heaven.”

            The idea of creating this kind of deep-tech team has been percolating since October 2012, when Microsoft veteran Steve Guggenheimer returned to Microsoft to head up DPE, according to Microsoft execs. Guggenheimer, in conjunction with Server and Tools Business chief Satya Nadella and with the blessing of CEO Steve Ballmer, set out to recruit some deeply technical evangelists with far-flung specializations.

            Shewchuk, a 20-year Microsoft veteran and one of the company’s Technical Fellows, agreed to spearhead the team. (Microsoft isn’t saying how large the new team is, but I’ve heard it could be over 100 people in size and growing.) Shewchuk, who is now the Chief Technology Officer for the Microsoft Developer Platform, was working for the last several years on Windows Azure, where he helped the company build Windows Azure Active Directory, Service Bus and SQL services. Shewchuk also was a key contributor to a number of other Microsoft dev technologies, including .Net, Visual Studio, Windows Communication Foundation and the WIndows Identity Foundation.

            “The idea is to bridge our inside developers to outside developers,” Shewchuk said. “We want to get the top developers to adopt our platform.”

            Shewchuk described the new deep-tech team as a place where Microsoft pulls together its own “world-class” developers to exchange ideas among themselves and with the outside world. Because Microsoft’s new stack of technologies are all at different places, in terms of their maturity cycle, the Microsoft tech team will do everything from build new frameworks; develop code to tie together disparate products; and make available code and templates for external use using services like GitHub or CodePlex. In some cases, the “developers” who take advantage of these pieces may be Microsoft’s own product teams who may want to incorporate code (and even the developers who wrote it) directly into their units.

            More information:
            – John Shewchuk’s Profile [MSDN, May 2013]

            John Shewchuk is a Technical Fellow and the CTO for the Microsoft Developer Platform. John leads the team responsible for technical evangelism and development in DPE; his team partners with developers, designers, and IT pros to build next gen applications using Microsoft’s devices and services and they share those experiences with the developer community. John has been with Microsoft for almost 20 years. Most recently John focused on Azure developing key platform services including Windows Azure Active Directory, Service Bus, and SQL services. He has been a key contributor on wide range of technologies including; Visual Studio, .NET, WCF, WIF, IE, and AD. John is an advocate and contributor to open source and Web standards – most recently he drove many of the contributions Microsoft made to OAuth 2. John has BS in Electrical Engineering from Union College and an MS in Computer Science from Brown University. He lives in Redmond with his wife and four children.

            – Microsoft Big Brains: John Shewchuk [Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft blog of ZDNet, Nov 20, 2008]

            Claim to Fame: One of the masterminds behind “Zurich,” a key component of Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure, and a key player in Microsoft’s Federated Identity work [see also: Ozzie foreshadows ‘Zurich,’ Microsoft’s elastic cloud [same author, same place, July 24, 2008]

            – Bytes by MSDN: John Shewchuk and Rob Bagby discuss “Project Dallas” [on YouTube MrAbdoul9 channel, Jan 29, 2010; on Channel 9, Aug 29, 2010] this is where OAuth is first mentioned

            John Shewchuk, a Microsoft Technical Fellow, leads the Project Zurich architecture and strategy teams, which are focused on extending Microsoft’s .NET application development technologies to the Internet “cloud.” Shewchuk works in Microsoft’s Connected Systems Division (CSD) where he leads the technical strategy team. Over the last several years Shewchuk and his team have developed a wide range of Internet-based application messaging and identity federation technologies. Additionally, he was a co-founder of the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) team and has been a key contributor to cross-industry interoperability initiatives. Working in conjunction with others on his team, Shewchuk developed Web services specifications and managed technical collaborations with IBM, Sun, SAP, and many others. He also has been a key leader and contributor to Microsoft’s efforts in federated identity, access control, and privacy. Previously, Shewchuk worked on Microsoft’s development tools and runtimes and played a key role in the development of Visual Studio and .NET. Earlier in his career, he played a role in the development of many Internet technologies including stylesheets, browser behaviors, and Web server controls.

            – Microsoft unveils AD Azure strategy, ID management reset [John Fontana for Identity Matters blog of ZDNet, May 25, 2012]

            After two years of work, Microsoft has unveiled details and its strategy around Active Directory for the cloud, anointing it the centerpiece of a comprehensive online identity management services strategy it thinks will profoundly alter the ID landscape.
            The company said changes to the current concepts around identity management need a “reset” to handle the “social enterprise.” Microsoft says it is “reimagining” how its Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) service helps developers create apps that connect the directory to SaaS apps and cloud platforms, corporate customers and social networks.
            “The term ‘identity management’ will be redefined to include everything needed to provide and consume identity in our increasingly networked and federated world,” Kim Cameron, an icon in the identity field and now a distinguished engineer working on identity at Microsoft, said on his blog. “This is so profound that it constitutes a ‘reset’.”
            At the center is WAAD, which is in use today mostly with Office 365 and Windows Intune customers. WAAD is a multitenant service designed for high availability and Internet scale.
            In a companion blog post to Cameron’s, John Shewchuk [see also Part 2 of that], a Microsoft Technical Fellow and key cog in the company’s cloud identity engineering, provided some details on WAAD, including new Internet-focused connectivity, mobility and collaboration features to support applications that run in the cloud.
            Shewchuk said the aim is to support technologies such as Java, and apps running on mobile devices including the iPhone or other cloud platforms such as Amazon’s AWS.
            Shewchuk said WAAD will be the cloud extension to on-premises Active Directory deployments enterprises have already made. The two are married using identity federation and directory synchronization.
            He said Microsoft made “significant changes to the internal architecture of Active Directory” in order to create WAAD.
            As an example, he said, “Instead of having an individual server operate as the Active Directory store and issue credentials, we split these capabilities into independent roles. We made issuing tokens a scale-out role in Windows Azure, and we partitioned the Active Directory store to operate across many servers and between data centers.”
            Some analysts are already noting the challenges Microsoft will have with its cloud directory.
            Mark Diodati, a research vice president at Gartner focusing on identity issues, told me in a conversation about changes the cloud is forcing on enterprise ID management that, “the addition of tablets and smartphones into the enterprise device mix exceeds Active Directory’s management capabilities and there is an impedance mismatch using Kerberos across the cloud.”
            While Shewchuk laid out the set-up for a Part 2 [see here: Part 2 where OAuth 2 is first mentioned as: “we currently support WS-Federation to enable SSO between the application and the directory. We also see the SAML/P, OAuth 2, and OpenID Connect protocols as a strategic focus and will be increasing support for these protocols”] of his blog that will focus on enhancements to WAAD, Kim Cameron painted the bigger picture on cloud identity going forward.
            He said companies adopting cloud technology will see dramatic changes over the next decade in the way identity management is delivered. “We all need to understand this change,” he stressed.
            Cameron said identity management as a service “will use the cloud to master the cloud”, and will provide the most reliable and cost-effective options.
            “Enterprises will use these services to manage authentication and authorization of internal employees, the supply chain, and customers (including individuals), leads and prospects. Governments will use them when interacting with other government agencies, enterprises and citizens.”
            And he added that enterprises will have to move beyond concepts that have guided their thinking to date.

            Identity & Access [MSFTws2012 YouTube channel, Nov 20, 2012]

            John Shewchuk talks about how to overcome identity and access challenges brought about by continuous services and connected devices. Learn more about Active Directory, Direct Access, and Dynamic Access Control at http://aka.ms/Ytidentity
            Current state-of-the-art:
            – Welcome to the Active Directory Team Blog [MSDN blogs, April 15, 2013]
            – Announcing some new capabilities in Azure Active Directory Graph Service [Windows Azure Active Directory Graph Team blog on MSDN, May 15, 2013]

            – BUILD 2013, Windows 8.1, and Microsoft’s Deep-Tech Team: Hopeful News for Devs [Tim Huckaby on DevPro, May 16, 2013]

            It’s hard to change a culture. Having worked for or with Microsoft for over 20 years, I can tell you that I have a myriad of colleagues that are Microsoft employees, most of whom I call my friends and respect very much. Over the last several months, I’ve had several discouraging private conversations about where the developer goals, mission, and strategy were headed for Microsoft. I could see the problems and mistakes. Microsoft employees could see them, too. You probably saw them, too. It’s been frustrating. When the head guy in charge of Microsoft development ignores feedback that includes internal feedback from Microsoft and external feedback from folks such as me and you, then that builds a culture of secrecy and fear. Although that head guy is gone now [obvious reference to Steven Sinofsky, ex Microsoft: The victim of an extremely complex web of the “western world” high-tech interests [‘Experiencing the Cloud, Nov 13-20, 2012], it’s still taken a long time to change that culture back to where it should be.
            In all honesty, I can tell you that I haven’t been encouraged about the developer platform at Microsoft in a while. However, today I’m encouraged for the first time in a long time. I see the culture changing. I hear people at Microsoft saying that the culture is changing. And there’s several encouraging announcements that are emerging. Suddenly, I’m now excited about the Microsoft’s BUILD 2013 developer conference that’s being held in San Francisco from June 26 to June 28, and I’m not the old guy saying, “Get off my lawn!” However, I’d first like to present you all with some background that made me discouraged in the first place.
            Microsoft’s Development Woes
            I painfully read a recent blog post about Microsoft’s developer issues. I don’t even know who wrote it. This guy or gal didn’t put his or her name on the blog post. It’s painful because this person makes a ton of good points. Within this blog post, the author goes far enough back to put Win16 into perspective. It’s a very interesting read if you want to talk about the context of Microsoft’s developer problems through time and the speculation surrounding those problems. One of the main points in this article is that Microsoft has hung onto an obsolete Win32 API even though, a decade ago Intel took a completely different tact with the GPU and multi-core processors when it could have picked several versions of Windows over time to start over. However, Microsoft didn’t choose to do this, which has caused developers a lot of pain.
            Related: “Windows 8 Start Button Shenanigans“
            Most recently that developer pain has manifested with the introduction of the modern API in Windows 8. The modern API has many developers so confused and angered. A lot of these developers are experiencing anger because the most successfully adopted and beloved developer technology in Microsoft history was seemingly killed by this new modern API: Silverlight. Also seemingly killed was XNA. Several developers are also confused because Microsoft seems to be pushing the message to get users to build enterprise applications in HTML5 and deliver them through the Windows Store.
            But, alas, there is hope! Recent announcements and speculations have me really encouraged.
            Encouraging Announcements from Microsoft
            On May 14, Microsoft officially announced the long rumored Windows Blue, which is officially called Windows 8.1. It will be a free update to Windows 8. Windows 8.1 promises to fix several different problems that folks have been complaining about. It’s important to note that Windows 8.1 isn’t a service pack. It’s a full blown upgrade to the OS. Microsoft promises several exciting things for the developer to be announced at BUILD, which includes the public release of Windows 8.1.
            This month a minor Internet hysteria phenomena occurred with the revelation of the Microsoft deep-tech team. Mary Jo Foley wrote it best describing it as Microsoft’s new plan for reaching out to top-tier developers of all sizes to get them to take a look at the new and expanded Microsoft toolbox. There’s several “big guns” who will be leading the effort.
            John Shewchuk is one of those “big guns.” I know John from a prior life at Microsoft. He’s a 20-year Microsoft veteran and one of the company’s Technical Fellows. He’s leading the team and serving as the Chief Technology Officer for the Microsoft Developer Platform. This is good news.
            My guess is that the deep-tech team was the brainchild of Microsoft veteran Steve Guggenheimer, who took the reins of heading the Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) team in October 2012. Affectionately known as “Guggs,” Steve Guggenheimer has a long and storied career at Microsoft.
            Patrick Chanezon is a new hire to Microsoft who will lead the enterprise evangelism efforts in Microsoft’s DPE unit from San Francisco. He joined Microsoft from VMware just weeks ago. This is a key hire that also seems to be really good news.
            More about those Microsoft people I respect; the people who get it; the people who affect change.  Scott Guthrie is one of them. But everyone knows who knows the Microsoft Platform knows who Scott Guthrie is. Another one of them is Gabor Fari. You probably don’t know his name. But Gabor is one of the many Microsoft folks who “gets it.” Internally, he’s willing to criticize the company he works for and loves when it deserves it. He’s also the first to garner praise where Microsoft deserves it. Gabor’s title is Director of Life Sciences Solutions, and his grasp of the developer platform at Microsoft is his passion. When discussing the problems of the past and the excitement of the future with Gabor he left me with this, and I believe it’s the perfect way to end this article:
            “I am very excited about the latest developments and news that has been released, and I am eagerly anticipating additional news from the BUILD conference. The slumbering lion still has spectacular fangs and teeth; and now he has woken up and is ready to roar.”

            Regarding Gabor Fari I will include here the following link:
            – Sanofi: Global Healthcare Leader Deploys Intelligent Content Framework, Speeds Time-to-Market [Microsoft Case Study, April 16, 2013] from which the following excerpts describe Fari’s involvement and role in strategic developments the best:

            In January 2011, Sanofi launched a program called CRUISE—Content Re-Use Information System for Electronic Health. Through CRUISE, the company set out to develop a content management solution that transverses the company’s research and development efforts. The program charter of CRUISE is to implement processes and tools that enable stakeholders to author, assemble, review, approve, reuse, publish, and deliver high-quality, consistent, and compliant content and documentation throughout the product development life cycle—aiding the submission to regulatory agencies and other industry audiences. “The idea is to find ways to intelligently and seamlessly manage content authoring and production,” says Bhanu Bahl, Senior Manager of Clinical Sciences and Operation Platform at Sanofi. “The key business objective is to reduce the effort required to prepare documents through a synergy of optimized processes and enabling technologies.”
            CRUISE has three pillars. One pillar involves simplifying the documentation process in a way that makes it possible to reuse content in various materials. Another pillar revolves around services that involve the many different documentation deliverables. The third pillar focuses on the technology solution, which is designed as a content library that tags and classifies information so that it can be easily assembled and searched. “With CRUISE, we are not doing a process redesign,” says Bahl. “We’re building something more tangible, more simplified, and more standardized.”
            To address the CRUISE mandate, Sanofi worked closely with Microsoft as well as two members of the Microsoft Partner Network, DITA Exchange and the ArborSys Group. Microsoft provided the Intelligent Content Framework (ICF) and underlying technologies based on Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office. DITA Exchange delivered a solution that enables organizations to establish and maintain a “single source of truth” for their strategic content, and to deliver that content consistently across outputs. The ArborSys Group consulted on the tool and process redesign and helped achieve an end-to-end business and technology implementation for regulated industries.

            …

            Gabor Fari, Director of Life Sciences Solutions at Microsoft, served as an evangelist in helping to put together the CRUISE team. DITA Exchange had been working closely with Microsoft since 2008 to develop the ICF for regulated industries. It completed the first version of the XML-based solution in February 2009.
            As the technology pillar of CRUISE and the engine of EnCORE, DITA Exchange software elevates SharePoint to an XML-based component content management and single-source publishing solution. It enables its customers to comply with regulatory requirements with tools for reusing content in a consistent and accurate way throughout the product development life cycle in the life sciences space. “Microsoft promoted our work to several pharmaceutical companies,” says Andersen. “It led the way in terms of bringing innovative ideas around SCM solutions.”
            DITA Exchange began working on the CRUISE implementation in April 2011. The partner participated in planning and supplied the solution used to manage the document output maps, topics, and linking of topics to the maps. “DITA Exchange helped us with content design and the governance structures of information design,” says Allred. “The people at DITA Exchange are masters of their technological domain. They have experience in regulated industries and the knowledge required to get our vision into an operational model.”
            The ArborSys Group joined the effort in April 2011. This partner provides business consultancy and technical implementation and helped Sanofi achieve measurable and sustainable results through the implementation of flexible IT solutions that can be adapted for change in a dynamic business climate.
            The two partners collaborated on developing the EnCORE platform. The ArborSys Group scoped processes, integrated service management roles and extensions, and trained internal resources.
            “Microsoft, DITA Exchange, and the ArborSys Group all provided expertise and leadership in terms of how we define processes and address the three pillars of CRUISE,” says Bahl. “The various disciplines they provided really helped us strategize our best opportunity in terms of development. We share a common vision that has resulted in a very rich, cutting-edge offering that other pharmaceutical companies will probably adopt three to five years from now.”
            While many other regulated industries have embraced SCM in recent years, life science organizations have lagged. “It’s no secret that the pharmaceutical industry is conservative,” says Andersen. “People think very carefully before they start anything. Sanofi is absolutely the leader in innovating in the pharmaceutical content management space.”

            …

            E-paper renaissance because of A4 format on a lighter, plastic substrate?

            May 15, 2013 1:52 pm / 1 Comment on E-paper renaissance because of A4 format on a lighter, plastic substrate?

            There is a nascent e-paper potential even with Onyx E430 Android 4.3″ E Ink phone [Charbax YouTube channel, May 13, 2013] promised for July 2013 delivery from Onyx International (with a 1GHz Cortex-A8 based SoC) having all of its 15+ engineering staff working on Android based E Ink solutions (including the 6” tablet shown in the video as well, although they have no idea yet what demand they could have on the market for that):

            [recorded on April 15, 2013 at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair] 6 months ago, I filmed Onyx showing the first Android E Ink e-reader prototype (http://armdevices.net/2012/10/16/e-ink-android-phone-by-onyx-international/). Now Onyx International shows their new 4.3″ E Ink Android phone with a front light. Onyx also shows their first 6″ Android based E Ink e-reader also with a front light. Onyx is thus now fully focusing on Android on E Ink, for Android E Ink phones and Android E Ink e-readers. Check back soon at http://ARMdevices.net for more news from Onyx on their latest and upcoming Android E Ink devices!

            See also: BOOX on 2013 HK Electronics Fair [Onyx news report, April 15, 2013]

            Imagine what kind of e-paper renaissance may come with this: E INK INTRODUCES MOBIUS, THE FIRST LARGE FORMAT FLEXIBLE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY TO GO INTO MASS PRODUCTION [press release, May 13, 2013]

            May 13, 2013 – Cambridge, MA — E Ink® Holdings, “E Ink” (8069.TW), a digital signage and display visionary, today announced the upcoming release of E Ink Mobius, a new flexible electronic paper display (EPD) technology. E Ink Mobius will be the first flexible display technology that will go into mass production for a large format digital paper product based on flexible Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology developed by Sony.

            Mobius uses a TFT technology that will enable the development of much lighter and rugged products. Mobius displays can weigh less than 50% of the weight of an equivalent glass based TFT. This is particularly important for mobile products requiring larger display areas. A 13.3″ display weighs approximately 60 grams.

            The ruggedness and lightweight characteristics of Mobius are due to the TFT being constructed on a plastic substrate rather than traditional glass. The technology was developed by Sony specifically for use with EPDs in cooperation with E Ink. Sony has now transferred the technology to E Ink for mass production. E Ink will start mass production of the world’s first 13.3 flexible EPD display in 2013.

            “We have been working with Sony for over 10 years, and we are extremely happy to bring this technology to mass production,” said Giovanni Mancini, director of product management for E Ink Holdings. “Development of this new digital paper product by Sony confirms our belief that the ePaper market is still strong.”

            Learn more about E Ink’s Mobius display technology and Sony’s digital paper product, which is the first prototype to use Mobius, by visiting the Sony booth during the 4th Educational IT Solutions Expo (EDIX) from May 15-17, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan; or by visiting the E Ink booth at the upcoming Society for Information Display (SID)’s Display Week 2013 International Symposium and Exhibition from May 21-23 in Vancouver, Canada.

            About E Ink Holdings
            Founded in 1992 by Taiwan’s leading papermaking and printing group YFY (1907.TW), E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TW) is the pioneer of TFT and ePaper business in Taiwan. Its corporate philosophy aims to deliver revolutionary products, user experiences, and environmental benefits through advanced technology development. This vision has led to its continuous investments in the field of ePaper display as well as its 2008 acquisition of Hydis Technologies, manufacturer of the world’s best wide viewing angle LCDs and its 2009 acquisition of E Ink Corporation, the worldwide leader in ePaper. Listed in Taiwan’s GreTai Securities Market and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world’s largest supplier of displays to the eReader market. For corporate information, please visit www.einkgroup.com; for EPD information, please visit www.eink.com / tw.eink.com; and for FFS information, please visit www.hydis.com.

            The development of a 13.3-inch “digital paper” aims to achieve “digital paper solutions” [Sony Corporation Japan press release, May 13, 2013] as translated by Google and Bing with manual edits

            Sony aims to deliver the digital paper solution for “digitization of documents and materials, including paper” which helps in field offices and universities that use large amounts of paper in order to improve productivity and learning effectiveness by the means of a newly developed 13.3-inch*1 “digital paper” terminal equivalent to A4 size .

            Due to delivery, storage, writing and sharing of electronic files that take advantage of the “digital paper” terminal through the network, Sony proposes a new work and learning style.

            Easy to write, easy to read digital paper terminal

            The newly developed display for the digital paper terminal adopts the latest type of 13.3” and 1200 x 1600 dots resolution flexible electronic paper*2 technology using Sony’s original technique of forming a high precision thin film transistor (TFT) on a plastic substrate. It is as easy to read the fine print on it clearly as on the paper because of the sufficiently large screen while you can carry it easily as well (6.8mm*3 thickness and light body, yet large screen for a mass of 358g). Moreover you can also read in layout and size of a 13.3-inch paper document since it corresponds to A4 size. Furthermore, with adoption of electromagnetic induction method and the optical touch panel technology an accompanying pen can also be applied to the operation of the paging and menus by touching the screen, to write as smoothly as on the paper.

            With the file format corresponds to PDF you can save highlights, sticky notes and handwriting with the documents.

            In addition, since it is equipped with Wi-Fi function, it is planned to support applications to share files across a network. Furthermore, because it is equipped with a microSD memory card slot*4, you can cope with keeping and utilizing a large amount of documents.

            Despite the large screen flexible electronic paper is available for about up to 3 weeks*5 on a single charge because of its low power consumption.

            Sony aims to commercialize this new terminal in the 2013 fiscal year[ending March 2014].

            image

            *1: 13.3-inch is equivalent to the size of an A4 paper excluding the margin size.

            *2: Flexible electronic paper, has adopted E Ink ®’s “E Ink Mobius” technology.

            *3: When excluding the pen holder section.

            *4: It is not supported to microSDXC copyright protection and function (CPRM).

            *5: With Wi-Fi feature off, if you are viewing PDF files (text) for one hour a day and using handwriting features for less than 5 minutes.

            Actual operational duration of the rechargeable battery depends on the state of equipment configuration and the environment of usage.

            With the aim to achieve “digital paper solutions” late 2013 field trials are planned with three universities

            Sony and Sony Business Solutions plan to start experimental implementation of “digital paper solutions” in the field of education by providing “digital paper” terminals to be utilized in the classrooms of Waseda University, Ritsumeikan University, and Hosei University during the fall semester of 2013. The aim is to enhance learning efficiency with the “digital paper” terminal replacing paper and teaching materials used in the university, as well as streamline the process of teaching.

            The August 2012 report of the Central Education Council titled “Toward a qualitative transformation of university education in order to build a new future” shows the need for conversion to active learning with interactive discussions and debates, lectures, seminars, experiments and practice.

            Sony aims to achieve early implementation of effective active learning by “digital paper solutions” through experiments utilizing the “digital paper” terminal.

            Exhibited at the “4th Educational IT Solutions EXPO”

            A prototype of “digital paper” terminal will be exhibited at the Sony booth during the 4th Educational IT Solutions Expo (EDIX) from May 15-17, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

            * Please visit the event website.

            Main specifications of the prototype of the “digital paper” terminal

            Display

            Flexible electronic paper with 13.3-inch and 1,200 × 1,600 dots
            16-level gray scale

            Touch panel

            Electromagnetic induction type pen input for touch screen
            Cleartouch Panel (optical)

            Built-in memory capacity

            4GB

            Interface

            microSD memory card slot*4, micro USB port

            Support file format (extension)

            Complies with the PDF 1.7 specification (. Pdf)

            Wireless LAN

            IEEE 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz) compliant

            Rechargeable battery

            Built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery

            Rechargeable battery duration

            Up to 3 weeks (when the Wi-Fi feature off)*5

            Dimensions (height × depth × width)

            233 × 310 × 6.8mm*3 (display unit 4.8mm)

            Weight (including battery)

            358g

            3d party reports of Sony announcement:
            – Sony reveals prototype 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus, aims to put it in students’ bags [Engadget, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony’s Got A 13.3-Inch E-Reader With Pen Input, Which Is Sort Of Like A Dodo With Antlers [TechCrunch, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony Unveils 13.3-inch Flexible Digital Paper E-reader [Laptopmag.com, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony unveils 13.3-inch e-reader destined for students [Gizmag, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony’s 13.3-inch digital paper prototype lets you scribble on e-books [Geek.com, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony announces ‘digital paper’: Ultra-thin 13.3-inch flexible e-reader for universities [Digital Trends, May 13, 2013]
            – Sony ‘trialling e-ink slate as textbook alternative’ [digital spy, May 13, 2013]

            Sony will trial the device at three Japanese universities later this year and plans to bring it to market before the current fiscal year ends in March 2014.

            It is yet to be confirmed whether the slate will be commercially released in the West.

            And these are only the reports in English. There is a surprisingly large number of reports in other languages as well when one does the corresponding image based Google search on the web. Quite remarkable considering a late view that e-ink is going to die. This is definitely not the view of E Ink, as you could see from their A Tale of Two eReaders [EInkSeeMore YouTube channel, Nov 12, 2012] video:

            Can’t decide between an eReader and a Tablet? See the difference an E Ink enabled device can bring to your reading experience. Created by the company that makes the paper-like display in the Kindle Paperwhite, Nook GlowLight, KoboGlo and Sony Reader.

            And don’t forget the company already achieved “roll to roll” production, so with new plastic substrate technology they will be able to further increase their manufacturing efficiency:

            Your E Ink eReader screen is actually made in long rolls before being cut into eReader size pieces. One day, we took a roll into Boston, and laid it along the Charles River…

            New Nokia Asha platform for developers

            May 9, 2013 8:02 pm / 4 Comments on New Nokia Asha platform for developers

            This is a very throroughly designed platform with carefully defined Nokia Asha Design Guidelines providing all the details as well as a comprehensive set of tools supporting that. From Series 40 to Nokia Asha is giving advice about migrating earlier S40 and Asha apllications to the Asha platform. It is also worth to have a look at that as by doing so you can compare the new Nokia Asha with earlier Asha Full Touch and Asha Touch and Type.

            Preliminary reading:
            – The New Asha Range [global Nokia microsite, May 9, 2013] with separate Fastlane, Design and Browsing pages
            – The Asha Apps Revolution [Nokia Conversations post, May 9, 2013]
            – New Asha platform and ecosystem to deliver a breakthrough category of affordable smartphone from Nokia [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, May 9, 2013] my composite post of the all relevant launch information
            – Nokia’s non-Windows crossroad [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, May 2, 2013] my composite post analyzing the technologies which are provided now with the new Asha platform

            Nokia Asha — Platform overview [May 9, 2013]

            …

            The key features of the platform are:

              • Platformised in software and hardware — complementing the Nokia Asha software platform is an increased focus on platformising the phone hardware, developers will now have greater certainty that a hardware feature they want to exploit in an app will be available across the new Nokia Asha family.
              • Firmware updating — smartphone users expect regular firmware update to bring new features and functions to their phones, the Nokia Asha platform has been built with this demand in mind and updates are already in development.
              • User experience — a engaging, sophisticated UI, optimised for 3″ (61.0 x 45.7 mm [unlike 66.0 x 40.0 mm on the previous Asha Full Touch devices]) QVGA (240 x 320 pixels [unlike the 240 x 400 pixels on the previous Asha Full Touch devices]) displays. The UI employs a swiping style for navigation between apps and the home screen, and within the home screen. It also enables apps to use the whole screen by hiding the status and menu bars until they are swiped into view.
              • More advanced, fully featured apps are easier with Java. Harness features such as 2D and 3D graphic, accelerometers, and location information among others giving you more options to deliver the quality of apps consumers expect on a smartphone.
              • With web apps online, content is delivered using up to 90% less data, while offering users an interactive, engaging UI because, unlike other proxy browser system, Nokia Asha web apps can update their UI locally on the phone.

              …

              Java highlights

              • All new Oracle VM.
              • JAR files up to 5Mb and up to 3Mb heap memory (recommended).
              • New Asha UI for intuitive, fast interaction.
              • Mobile Internationalization API (JSR-238) and new Nokia specific APIs for features such as image scaling and network state.
              • Earn from you apps with paid downloads, advertising, and in-app payments.
              • Updated tools, with updated emulator and WiFi based on-device debugger.
              • Comprehensive documentation, training, code examples and more.

              Web app highlights

              • Powered by the latest Gecko rendering engine.
              • Rich UIs with dynamic list and fixed and scrollable regions.
              • API to build hardware back-button navigation into your app.
              • Ability to capture photos and videos.
              • Discovery through the Nokia Store.
              • Earn from you apps with paid downloads and advertising.
              • Updated tools with new simulator and code examples.
              • Comprehensive documentation, training, code examples and more.

              UX Overview – Nokia Asha Design Guidelines [April 17, 2013]

              Nokia Asha is built around the concept of stacked layers that can be directly manipulated by the user.

              image

              …

              Base layout – Nokia Asha Design Guidelines [May 9, 2013]

              Nokia Asha UI combines the use of the swipe gesture and back hardware key for navigation, and therefore apps have no mandatory control areas on screen. Each app view can be easily designed for its main purpose, maximising the amount of relevant content on the UI. The base layout in Nokia Asha has two main areas: status bar and content area.

              image

              In addition to using the content area for app content, apps can add optional controls, Category bar (with tabs or actions) and Header bar. When the view offers few, rarely used options only, placing them under the Options menu is possible. The Options menu is accessed by swiping from the bottom of the screen. When the Options menu is available, the screen shows an Options menu indicator at the bottom.

              NOTE: When using LCDUI List, TextBox, Alert, or Form, the Header bar will be automatically added to the top of the view. When drawing on Canvas, the Header bar can be left out.

              …

              Developing applications with Java – Nokia Asha Design Guidelines [May 9, 2013]

              Nokia Asha provides a few alternatives for developing Java applications. The following information can be used to select the best approach for designing and developing your application.

              CHOOSING YOUR APPROACH

              Custom UI on Canvas

              Using LCDUI high-level components

              Using LWUIT components

              image

              image

              image
              Full screen apps or apps with chrome (Status bar and Header).
              Everything drawn on Canvas pixel by pixel.
              Good approach for game development.
              LCDUI high-level components and Nokia UI API’s are in use.
              Components are styled with Asha look & feel.
              Custom components can be created with CustomItem.
              Offers a more comprehensive component set with many customisation options.
              Components are styled with Asha look and feel, but also custom theming is easy for branded look and feel.
              Custom UI on Canvas
              Canvas class is the main template for customised MIDlet functions. Using Canvas, the MIDlet can use any drawing primitives provided by the LCDUI Graphics interface and can receive key events. The drawback is that the MIDlet will not be as portable as ones created using only high-level APIs.
              A common example of a MIDlet that uses Canvas is a mobile game that requires pixel-accurate drawing and access to low-level keypad events. Read more information about Canvas from the Java Developer’s Library.
              Using LCDUI high-level components
              Limited Connected Device User Interface (LCDUI) is the base of any Graphical User Interface (GUI) created in Java™ ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition). It has a similar role to the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) and Swing APIs, which are used in Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition) and Java EE (Java Platform, Enterprise Edition), but offers a more restricted and resource-efficient approach to UI development.
              LCDUI has a simple screen-based approach, where a single Displayable is always active in the display area of the application user interface. This Displayable can contain predefined screen elements, or be manipulated in more specific ways.
              On a logical level, the MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) UI is divided into two levels: high and low. In general, the choice is made between the easy, quick and portable high-level APIs and the more customisable low-level APIs.
              image
              Figure 1. LCDUI overview
              Read more about the LCDUI from the Java Developer’s library.
              Using LWUIT components
              LWUIT (LightWeight UI Toolkit) is an open source alternative that provides a comprehensive selection of customisable UI components, layouts, and effects. Use of the ready-made Nokia Asha theme for the components is recommended, but developers can also easily create their own custom themes for branded look and feel. LWUIT is highly portable, as it scales to different screen resolutions and orientations, and has built-in support for touch and non-touch UI.
              LWUIT applications are created on top of LCDUI Canvas. Though LWUIT has been optimised for Nokia Asha phones, LCDUI is a better option for performance critical applications, especially on phones with cost-optimised hardware. Also, when a compact application binary size is crucial, LCDUI should be considered instead, because the LWUIT library is added to every LWUIT application and it increases the application size by 200-800 kB (depending on the application features).
              image
              Figure 2. LWUIT overview

              Nokia Asha — Java — Tools [May 9, 2013]

              Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 (beta)

              Create apps for the Nokia Asha family on Nokia Asha software platform using the Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 (beta). Then test your apps in an emulator based on the Nokia Asha 501. The Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 (beta) offers:

              Nokia Asha UI emulation
              The Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 contains an emulator based on the Nokia Asha 501, providing mouse based emulation of the phone’s touch features making testing easy.
              LWUIT for richer Uis
              A Nokia Asha platform optimised implementation of the LWUIT is included as a plug-in. Delivering rich UIs has never been easier.
              Integrated HERE Maps API
              It’s now even easier to add rich maps to your location based apps, as the HERE Maps API for Java ME is integrated into the SDK.
              Enhanced location features
              The emulator delivers updated location details from the integrated Route Editor to your Java apps, enabling richer testing of your location based apps.
              Multiple-touch simulation
              The Pinch-to-zoom simulator enables multipoint-touch gestures to be recorded and sent to the emulator.
              Sensor emulation
              You can simulate fully the orientation of a Nokia Asha phone in the emulator, enabling the testing of apps and games using the Mobile Sensor API (JSR-256).
              Enhanced media playback
              The emulator offers accurate media playback enabling complete testing of media delivered through your apps.
              Keyboard input
              Enter text directly from your PC keyboard into fields in the emulator, to speed up testing.
              Emulator tools
              Simplify and speed up your testing with the diagnostic window, MIDP speed simulator, configurable MIDP monitoring, and events generator among other tools.
              Java API emulation
              The emulator provides full support for MIDP and CDLC, along with the APIs provided in the Nokia Asha platform.
              Real phone emulation
              As the emulator is based on the Nokia Asha 501, it provides you with a realistic implementation of UI, user apps, messaging, and network communication features. Now you can accurately and conveniently test your apps on a PC.
              Selecting your SDK made easy
              The exclusive Device SDK Selector makes it easy to locate and install the SDKs you need to target earlier Series 40 phones. Pick SDKs by platform or phone model, download and install to get coding.

              Nokia IDE 2.0 for Java ME (beta)

              While the Nokia Asha SDK 1.0 (beta) is designed to work with the NetBeans and Eclipse IDEs, for the easiest and most straightforward development experience, the SDK includes the Nokia IDE 2.0 for Java ME (beta). Building on the power of the Eclipse platform for Java development, the Nokia IDE for Java ME delivers exclusive features for your Nokia Asha platform and Series 40 Java apps.

              Welcome to your new IDE
              A comprehensive welcome screen provides details on developing Java apps for the Nokia Asha platform and Series 40, available APIs, links to key Nokia Developer resources, and more.
              Selecting your SDK made easy
              The integrated Device SDK Selector makes it easy to locate and install the SDKs you need to target Nokia Asha and Series 40 phones. Pick SDKs by platform or phone model, download and install to get coding.
              Nokia specific JAD editor
              A customised JAD attributes editor makes it easy to add the information you need to effectively target your apps’ build to the Nokia Asha and Series 40 platforms.
              In-app purchase and location templates
              Get started quickly with your apps that take advantage of in-app advertising or location with new templates that includes everything you need.
              Access to examples
              Load any of over 40 example apps straight into your workspace. Covering many aspects of the Java APIs on the Nokia Asha platform, these examples can kick-start your development.
              Nokia Hub
              Quickly find more information on publishing apps, remote access to phones for testing, Nokia Developer news, and code examples though the Nokia Hub menu.

              Remote Device Access

              Test on a range of Nokia Asha and Series 40 phones

              With the Nokia Developer Remote Device Access Service you can connect to a comprehensive range of Nokia Asha platform and Series 40 phones over the internet. Install your app then run it, just as you would on your own phone, to check out its behaviour on different hardware and UI form factors.

              Learn more ›

              And don’t forget that Nokia Premium Developer Program for Asha membership give you access to more phones, so you won’t have to wait to start testing.

              Nokia Asha — Web apps [May 9, 2013]

              The Nokia Asha software platform provides a powerful, data efficient web apps environment. Targeting this environment, you leverage your web development skills to create connected apps that deliver web content with an engaging, interactive UX that’ll appeal to consumers globally or can be targeted at specific local markets.

              • New user experience — the Nokia Asha UI builds on the popular Series 40 UI. Delivered through a 3.0’’ (61.0 x 45.7 mm [unlike 66.0 x 40.0 mm on the previous Asha Full Touch devices]) QVGA capacitive touch screen (240 x 320 pixels [unlike the 240 x 400 pixels on the previous Asha Full Touch devices]), it supports two touch points for pinch-to-zoom and similar gestures. The UI swipe paradigm has been extended to include the Options Menu and fast access to the Home screen. A hardware back-button enables consumers to easily navigate an app’s hierarchy.
              • New APIs — so you to make most of the Nokia Asha UI, web apps include an API to listen for the hardware back-button. In addition, enhanced HTML tag support also means you can add image and video capture to your web apps.
              • New tools — the Nokia Asha web app tools deliver a Nokia Asha software platform option to the simulator and fresh examples that show you how to use the latest APIs.

              Start with the Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0

              image

              See how to create, test, package, and deploy to a phone your first Nokia Asha web app.
              Follow the step-by-step guide ›

              Start with Xpress Web App Builder

              Xpress Web App Builder offers a no-code approach to creating Nokia Asha web apps and delivering them directly to your Nokia Publish account.
              Watch the video ›

              When Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 graduates beta you will be able to use it to target all the phones that support Xpress Browser. During the beta phase the ability to capture images and video will only be available on the Nokia Asha 501. You can target all other features at Series 40 phones with Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 or download Nokia Web Tools 2.3.

              …

              Nokia Asha web apps UI [May 4, 2013]

              Nokia Asha web apps UIs benefit from the features of the Nokia Asha UI, such as its swipe interaction to reveal the Options Menu, which enable web apps to focus the entire phone screen on content. When designing a web app UI, you have the freedom offered by web technologies coupled with the dynamic UI features offered by the Nokia Asha web apps runtime, such as the ability to dynamically update lists or set fixed and scrollable areas within your apps. Web apps can also make use of the hardware back-button to offer users safe and simple navigation of an app’s hierarchy.

              A great UX is about more than simply implementing a UI style; whether you are new to design or a seasoned pro, access a range of resources to help you create the best and most engaging experience in your apps and games. To get started check out the Nokia Asha web app design library before discovering other useful resources, such as design guidelines, UI stencils, and icon templates in the Design and User Experience Library.

              What’s new in web app UX design [May 4, 2013]

              The Nokia Asha software platform 1.0 offers a significantly updated UI compared to its predecessor, the full-touch UI on Series 40. This section describes the key UX changes that effect web apps:

              • screen size – the New Nokia Asha UI on the Nokia Asha software platform 1.0 supports 240 x 320 pixel screens. For more information, see the Displays topic.
              • multiple page support – the Nokia Xpress Browser 3.0 supports up to four active browser windows, enabling up to four web app to be run at once.
              • touch gestures – the New Nokia Asha UI extends the platform wide mechanism for accessing key features using a swipe from the edge of the screen. As this mechanism overrides application behaviour, care needs to be taken in the design of web apps to ensure gestures within the web app aren’t confused with the system wide gestures. Ffor more information, see the Touch Gestures topic.
              • back button behaviour – the New Nokia Asha UI employs a physical back button, this back button implements back-stepping in platform and Java apps. For web apps a new Mobile Web Library method addBackNavListener() enables the key to be captured so that web apps can implement the same back-stepping behaviour. For more information, see the Navigation Controls topic.
              • Options menu – the Options menu is opened with a swipe gesture from the bottom of the screen in the New Nokia Asha UI. The menu by default contains the Data counter item, but no longer includes an exit item. For more information, see the Options Menu topic.
              • launching web apps – from within the Nokia Xpress browser web apps will be launched from the Featured Apps option. For more information, see the Launching web apps topic.
              • file upload and download – the Nokia Xpress Browser Download Manager is available from within web apps. For more information, see File uploads and downloads topic.
              • passwords – web app passwords can now be cleared from the phone’s Settings feature. For more information see Passwords topic.
              • Data Usage option – web apps can now access a report on their data use. For more information see the Data Usage topic.

              Nokia Asha — Web apps — Tools [May 9, 2013]

              Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 (beta)

              Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 (beta) delivers a suite of applications that assist in the development, testing, packaging, and deployment of Nokia Asha web apps, including preparing them for distribution through Nokia Store. The key components of Nokia Asha web app tools are Web Developer Environment (WDE) and Web App Simulator (WAS).

              Download Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 (beta)

              During the beta release the features to provide the capture of images and video from within web apps won’t be available on earlier Series 40 platform phones supporting Xpress Browser.

              Web Developer Environment [WDE]

              Built on the Eclipse platform, Web Developer Environment delivers the code creation tools needed to efficiently create and package web apps.

              Extensive templates for new projects
              Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0 offers wider variety of templates for common web apps styles, which you can use to quick-start the development of your web apps. Import existing projects to take advantage of enhanced editing features.
              UI Designer
              With the UI Designer you can build web app interfaces by dragging and dropping UI component snippets and laying them out visually, enabling you to create web apps UIs faster.
              Powerful code editing
              With code completion and full validation, your coding will be quicker and more accurate, enabling you to build Nokia Asha web apps faster.
              Comprehensive range of examples
              The range of web app examples has been further expanded in Nokia Asha web app tools 3.0, to illustrate use of the hard back-key and media capture. You can now easily access more examples of how to code common web app APIs and features.
              Targeted HTML/CSS validation
              Validation of HTML and CSS includes specific Nokia Asha web apps rules. You get better feedback to ensure your web app will work optimally on Nokia Asha platform and Series 40 phones.
              Partial web app upload
              When uploading a web app to the preview server, the Web Developer Environment only uploads changed content. This makes starting a cloud preview fast, minimising the time needed to test your web apps.
              Packaging
              Your web apps are automatically packed by the tool and delivered in the format required for distribution through Nokia Store.
              Published web apps’ JAR
              Once your web app has been published to Nokia Store you can request a copy of the deployment JAR. This enables you to distribute your web app on websites and through other app stores.
              Deploy for phone testing
              Completed Nokia Asha web apps can be deployed directly from the Web Developer Environment over a USB connection for testing on a Nokia Asha platform or Series 40 phone, while for Series 40 phones deployment over Bluetooth is also available.
              		  

              Web App Simulator

              Run your Nokia Asha web apps on a computer during development using the Web App Simulator. It simplifies functional testing and final design validation.

              Phone simulation
              Preview your Nokia Asha web apps to see how they’ll look and behave on Nokia Asha platform and Series 40 phones, and interact with the web.
              Control phone features
              Take control of your simulation and test your web apps against all the UI variations available on the phones that support Nokia Asha web apps.
              Automatic reloading
              Local preview are automatically reloaded as code edits are made — speeding up testing by ensuring Web App Simulator always show the latest changes.
              Location simulation built-in
              Web App Simulator enables you to define location information to your simulated Nokia Asha web app, making testing of location-aware apps a breeze.
              Debugging made easy
              Web App Simulator includes a custom version of Web Inspector for the easy debugging and performance analysis of your Nokia Asha web apps.
              		  

              Xpress Web App Builder

              Xpress Web App Builder is an online tool that guides you through the process of creating rich web apps, with no coding required. Select from a variety of templates, customise your theme, and then add clipped web content, RSS feeds, and social media information. The key features of the tool are:

              • layout templates to present content, including single pane, tabbed view, and accordion view, as well as focused templates for news, pictures, and video content.
              • a wide range of content widgets for clipped web content; RSS feeds; video from YouTube; pictures from Flickr, Picasa, and other photo sharing sites; and blogs from Tumblr and WordPress.
              • the ability to add SMS and call capabilities, static HERE Maps, and in-app advertising from Nokia Ad Exchange.
              • the option to customise your app’s colour scheme, including header and font colours.
              • static and dynamic previews of your app, for all supported screen resolutions.

              When you’ve completed your web app, the tool provides a short URL for testing the app on your phone, and lets you submit the app to Nokia Publish to start the process of publication in Nokia store. However, if you want to customise your web app further, you can download the source code and import it into Nokia Asha web app tools.

              Launch Xpress Web App Builder

              Remote Device Access

              Test on a range of Nokia Asha and Series 40 phones

              With the Nokia Developer Remote Device Access Service you can connect to a comprehensive range of Nokia Asha platform and Series 40 phones over the internet. Use your web app’s short URL to launch it in the Xpress Browser then run it, just as you would on your own phone, to check out its behaviour on different hardware and UI form factors.
              Learn more ›
              And don’t forget that Nokia Premium Developer Program for Nokai Asha membership give you access to more phones, so you won’t have to wait to start testing.

              … Nokia In-App Payment [May 9, 2013]

              We have also introduced the new Nokia In-App Payment tool, designed to make it easier for you to sell content from within your apps. It provides a simple and secure purchase experience for consumers and transparent payments for developers. Nokia In-App Payment will also be available for existing Asha and Series 40 phones*(from 6th edition platform and above, except C1-01 and C1-02. Nokia will release a public beta of Nokia In-App Payment in the coming weeks, and you can sign up for the beta here.

              Nokia In-App Payment invitation-only beta program [May 9, 2013]

              In-App Payment is one of the dominant monetization models in the mobile app industry. This model also referred to as ‘Freemium’ model, helps you build apps with higher and recurring revenue opportunity.

              The model enables you to attract a larger user base with a free baseline experience and then extend this experience by offering digital content for sale. Nokia In-App Payment marks Nokia’s renewed approach to In-App Payment. The solution has been designed afresh with several new features and it enables you to sell digital content to Asha consumers from within your application.

              • The best payout in the industry
              • Easy to integrate and maintain
              • Single click payment
              • Nokia brand adds credibility to the transaction
              • Unparalleled coverage of devices

              Sign up to invite beta          
              Frequently Asked Questions

              This translates to more consumers, more purchases after download and higher payout per purchase – all leading to more recurring revenue for you!

              We are pleased to announce the Nokia In-App Payment invitation-only beta program. With a beta invitation, you will get to:

              • Try the Nokia In-App Payment Beta library
              • Publish apps with Nokia In-App Payment
              • Share your feedback

              Please sign up to be eligible to join the Nokia In-App Payment invitation-only beta program. We will start sending out invitations starting May 10th 2013.

              Integration of Nokia In-App Payment in your app is easy!

              • Download and install Java Development Environment for Asha and Nokia In-App Payment library
              • Implement in-app payment feature in your application using the test product IDs
              • Test your app in the emulator or on device with the test purchase flow
              • Register in-app purchase products, declare price points with Nokia Publish
              • Update your application using the product IDs
              • Test your app using the in-app purchase flow
              • Submit your final app to Nokia Publish and be ready to generate revenue!

              The Nokia In-App Payment includes several improvements

              • Access to a larger consumer base through Series 40 backward compatibility**
              • Simpler consumer purchase experience through single click payment
              • Support for faster development and testing.

              The introduction of Nokia In-App Payment means that the current in-app purchasing solution will be deprecated. In the near term, the intake of new apps using the deprecated in-app purchasing solution will be closed on June 10th 2013. However, published apps that use the deprecated in-app purchasing solution will continue to be available on Nokia Store until 2016. Please refer to the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ for more information.

              ** For more detailed device coverage during the invitation-only beta, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions.

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