Microsoft France: No new Xbox coming this year

According to French website Le Point, Microsoft's French marketing director, Cedrick Delma, has stated that he is "certain" the company will not be releasing a next-generation Xbox game console to consumers anytime this year. This news doesn't come as a surprise to many, but it's always nice to have some confirmation, right?

Despite this news, gamers should not completely rule out seeing a preview of the next-generation Xbox (whatever it may be called) sometime this year, possibly at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June. 

A recent report claimed that the future Xbox model will feature six times the processing power of the current Xbox 360 model. The same rumor claimed a late 2013 release for the game console. 

Report: Microsoft plans to axe its virtual “points” system by the end of 2012

According to Inside Mobile Apps, a source is claiming that Microsoft currently plans to phase out its proprietary virtual points system that's used to pay for something on Windows Phone, the Zune Market, and Xbox LIVE. Instead, the software giant will switch over to a money-based system that is based on the region your account is setup in. Users that currently have "Microsoft Points" on their account will have them converted to a money value by the end of this year. 

While the move to eliminate the system comes as a surprise, it will certainly be good news for many Microsoft product owners. Why? The main reason is because of the inconsistency Microsoft has with Points - some things in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace are marked with points, while others with monetary values. The same goes for the PC and Windows Phone Marketplace. 

What do you think about this decision? 

Next-generation Xbox scheduled to ship in late 2013 with 6x the processing power of Xbox 360

According to a report from IGN, the next-generation Xbox model will begin shipping to customers in late October or early November of 2013 with about six times the processing power of the current-generation Xbox 360. 

The game console's graphics processing unit (GPU) will reportedly begin being produced in late 2012, and will be based off of AMD's 6000 GPU series. "In real terms, the Xbox 720's raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360 and will yield 20-percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U."

Game developers will receive development kits based on the console's final specifications in August 2012, according to the report.  

Microsoft cancels MIX 2012 conference

Today, Microsoft revealed its plans to cancel the MIX 2012 conference that was originally scheduled to occur sometime in the Spring of this year. Instead, Microsoft will be merging the developer-focused conference with another event that will be occurring sometime within the next year. 

The software giant says that it had many factors in making this decision. First, the company believes that web development should be considered normal development today. Also, because of confusion between developers, choosing which conference to attend was becoming difficult. 

So what happens going forward? As we look ahead to 2012 and beyond, the goal is to ensure that global Microsoft developer events are of the caliber that many of you experienced at BUILD last September, in addition to the thousands of online and local developer events we host around the world to support communities and connect directly with developers. We will share more details of our next developer event later this year. In the meantime, know that we are we are hard at work and will look forward to seeing many of you there.

Microsoft hasn't provided any information on when this new event will be taking place. 

Microsoft reports Q4 2011 financial results – record-breaking $20.9 billion revenue

Today, Microsoft reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011, which ended December 31. The company announced a record-breaking revenue of $20.9 billion, a 5% increase year-over-year. Operating income and net income are listed at $7.99 billion and $6.62 billion, respectively. 

“We delivered solid financial results, even as we prepare for a launch year that will accelerate many of our key products and services,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re seeing very positive reviews for our new phones and PCs, and a strong response to our new Metro style design that will unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets, and television in 2012.”

Microsoft's Business Division reported $6.28 billion in revenue for the quarter. The Redmond-based software giant also announced that nearly 200 million licenses of Office 2010 have been sold since the productivity suite launched 18 months ago. 525 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold since the OS' launch a couple of years back as well.

On the entertainment and gaming side of things, Microsoft posted a revenue of $4.24 billion, a 15% increase from the prior period. 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and 18 million Kinect sensors have been sold, with 40 million Xbox LIVE users currently active on the service. 

Microsoft officially opposes SOPA “as currently drafted”

Microsoft has issued a statement to The Seattle Times that states the company is against the Stop Online Piracy Act (a.k.a. "SOPA"), which is currently in debate in the United States House of Representatives. Saying that it opposes the bill "as currently drafted," Microsoft has finally issued its stance on SOPA, something that many people have been waiting to hear for weeks now. 

The full statement from the company is below:

We oppose the passage of the SOPA bill as currently drafted. We think the White House statement points in a constructive way to problems with the current legislation, the need to fix them, and the opportunity for people on all sides to talk together about a better path forward."

The news came just hours before a number of the Internet's most popular websites announced that they would be "going dark" for 24 hours to protest SOPA. Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, and others are all participating in the Internet-wide protest today. 

Microsoft: More than 1.7 million Xbox 360 units sold in December 2011 in U.S.

Microsoft announced via a blog post earlier today that it sold a market-leading 1.7 million units of the Xbox 360 in December of 2011 in the United States. In 2011 as a whole, the Xbox 360 captured $6.7 billion in sales - $2.1 billion in console sales and $4.6 billion in games, accessories, etc. - and 49% of consumer retail spending. 

Microsoft also announced that it currently has more than 40 million Xbox LIVE subscribers worldwide, but didn't go into how many are actually paying for the service as oppose to those using the free LIVE Silver edition. 

The strong December capped an impressive year during which Xbox 360 was the fastest-growing console. It also captured 49 percent of consumer retail spending, with an industry-leading $6.7 billion in sales in the U.S. for the calendar year—more than $2.1 billion on consoles and $4.6 billion on games and accessories, NPD data shows.

Xbox 360 was the must-have gift this holiday season with about half of December’s retail spend on games, consoles and accessories going toward Xbox 360 products, totaling more than $1.5 billion, NPD data shows. According to internal Microsoft figures, the company has now sold more than 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and more than 18 million Kinect sensors worldwide, and has nearly 40 million Xbox LIVE members. 

The Xbox 360 now holds a commanding 46% market share in current-generation game consoles. 

Bing surpasses Yahoo to become second most popular search engine in the U.S.

Yesterday, comScore released its statistical information from December 2011 regarding market share of search engines in the United States. For the first time since launching in 2009, Microsoft's Bing surpassed Yahoo to become the second most popular search engine in the country. Google remained in first place with a very commanding 65.9% market share in December. 

According to comScore's data, Bing handled 2.75 billion search queries last month (accounting for 15.1% of total searches), while Yahoo recorded 2.65 billion. Rounding out the top five were Ask and AOL Search, respectively. Google remained the leader by handling about 12 billion search requests in the month. 

Microsoft announces minor software update rolling out to Windows Phone devices to address bugs

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a minor software update that it has begun rolling out to Windows Phone-powered devices worldwide that includes a number of bug fixes for the mobile platform. The company says that the update, which carries the version number 7.10.8107.79, is available for any carrier that requests it and is part of its "ongoing maintenance of Windows Phone." 

Microsoft also stated that in the coming months, it plans to release a number of software updates (as needed) in order to continue to address issues with Windows Phone 7.  

In the months ahead, we’ll continue to send out firmware and maintenance updates as needed. These will be available across the globe—although not everybody will receive or require them. It depends on your country, carrier, and phone model. But remember that you’ll never have to guess when a Windows Phone update is waiting: Just watch for the pop up notification on your device.

The changes included in this update are below:

Nokia Lumia 900 coming to AT&T in the “coming months”

Nokia has just announced at its Consumer Electronics Show press conference the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900, which will be coming exclusively to AT&T in the "coming months." The device features a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, 4G LTE connectivity, and a 1830 mAH battery. The smartphone also features a rear-facing camera with a "large aperture (F2.2) and wide angle focal length (28mm) for high-quality," as well as a front-facing camera.

"The introduction of the Nokia Lumia 900 with AT&T is another significant milestone in the ongoing rollout of Nokia's global smartphone strategy," said Chris Weber, president of Nokia Americas. "The Nokia Lumia 900 is designed specifically with the US in mind and the announcement of this collaboration with AT&T, in addition to other recent announcements, signifies a new dawn for Nokia in the US."

The design of the Lumia 900 is nearly identical to the Lumia 800, which is available overseas.  

The phone will be available in either cyan or matte black. 

HTC TITAN II unveiled at CES 2012, sports 16-megapixel camera

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, HTC unveiled the TITAN II, the company's first 4G LTE smartphone that is powered by Windows Phone. The next-generation device also sports a 4.7-inch LCD display, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S2 processor and a 1,730mAh battery.

Without a doubt, the major selling point of the TITAN II is its 16-megapixel camera, with a wide-angle lens, autofocus, dual LED flash, red eye reduction, image stabilization, a backside-illuminated sensor and a physical camera button. It shoots in 720p HD video as well.

The phone will be available in the coming months for AT&T customers. 

Microsoft and Sony to both unveil next-generation game consoles at this year’s E3 conference?

According to a report from MCV, both Microsoft and Sony are preparing to unveil their next-generation game consoles at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (a.k.a. "E3"). With Nintendo also scheduled to reveal the final details regarding its next game console, dubbed the "Wii U," E3 2012 is shaping up to be the "biggest ever" it seems. If these rumors and dates hold to be true, it will be the first time in the conference's seventeen-year history that "three fresh, rival console formats will be so directly comparable."

The Xbox 360 was originally released in December of 2005, while the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii were both unveiled in 2006. Microsoft and Sony have long been rumored to be working on next-generation game consoles, but exactly when these consoles will be released to the world is still unknown. The latest rumor claims that the next Xbox could be released sometime in Winter of 2013. 

All three consoles have seen both major and minor updates to keep the design and performance up to date. 

Tech blogger claims that Microsoft and Nokia are once again in acquisition talks

According to a Forbes interview with Russian technology blogger Eldar Murtazin, poor sales of the Windows Phone-powered Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 have led the struggling telecommunications company to resume talks with Microsoft over a possible acquisition. 

This isn't the first time we've heard a rumor about a possible Microsoft buyout of Nokia. The first time was back in June, but both companies quickly killed those rumors. Murtazin believes that talks between the two parties resumed back in November 2011. The blogger also claims that Nokia could sell off its smartphone division to Microsoft, but keep working on feature phones for "emerging markets." 

Nokia has already denied this most recent rumor. 

Microsoft: Internet Explorer 6 usage drops below 1% in U.S.

Today, Microsoft announced via its Exploring IE blog that usage of Internet Explorer 6 in the United States has dropped below 1%. Normally, a company would be sad to see their web browser drop to such low usage, but Microsoft has actually been trying to convince Windows users to update to a newer version of IE for the past couple of years now. 

The U.S. joins Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, all of which currently have under 1% IE 6 usage. Microsoft is now informing web developers that Internet Explorer 6 should be considered "low priority."

Back in 2010, Microsoft held a makeshift funeral for IE 6 as the web browser's market share began to sharply decline. In addition, the company launched a website, IE6Countdown, which encourages people to update their web browser and shows current statistics of IE 6 usage world wide. 

Google Chrome was 2011′s biggest winner, while Internet Explorer continued free falling

Today, StatCounter released its final web browser market share results for the entire year of 2011, from January to December and the numbers shows nothing unexpected. Microsoft's Internet Explorer began 2011 with a market-leading 46% market share, but ended (with a still market-leading) 38.65%, a drop of 7.35%. The data isn't surprising to many considering the fact that IE has been dropping since 2010. 

Meanwhile, Mozilla Firefox dropped 5.41% in market share, ending another tough, hard-fought year for the company. Google Chrome, on the other hand, skyrocketed in 2011 by gaining 11.59% market share (began with 15.68% and ended with 27.27%), continuing in its takeover of usage. Apple's Safari had a marginal gain, while Opera saw a small loss in usage throughout the year. 

Yesterday, Microsoft posted information on the Exploring IE blog from Net Applications regarding statistics of its newest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, which shipped in early 2011. The data shows that IE 9 saw a pretty good year on Windows 7 in terms of usage, gaining quite a large amount of users. 

Windows Phone “Tango” scheduled to be released in Q2 2012, “Apollo” in Q4

According to a leaked image posted by WMPoweruser, Microsoft is planning to release its Windows Phone "Tango" update to the world sometime in the second quarter of 2012. Tango is expected to be a software update focused around cheaper handsets for developing countries, but users in the U.S. should also be receiving the upgrade. 

In addition, the same leaked roadmap claims that Windows Phone "Apollo" will be released sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012. Apollo is expected to be focused around high-end super phones and address the lack of business-oriented features in the current version of Windows Phone 7. 

Microsoft released the first major update to Windows Phone 7 earlier this year in the form of "Mango," which brought general improvements to the mobile platform including:

• Improved live tile notifications (especially the People tile)
• Improved auto-correct on typing
• "Threads" is a new feature that combines things like text conversations, Facebook messages, Google chats, and more into one thread that can be read
• Users can now have one tile for multiple email accounts
• Email messaging has been improved for enterprise users with features like locked forwarding
• Calendar has been updated with Facebook event support
• Voice commands have been updated: now includes notifications over voice, allowing users to delete or read them
• Photos app updated with automatic tagging
• SkyDrive support and an improved Excel app
• Improved game tiles and Xbox LIVE integration
• Multitasking improvements
• Internet Explorer 9 with HTML5 capabilities
• New features to Bing tile

Windows Phone Marketplace surpasses 50,000 apps

According to All About Windows Phone, the Windows Phone Marketplace has surpassed 50,000 applications, with 265 apps being added everyday. 8,010 apps have been added in the last 30 days and the 50,000 apps come from 13,002 developers. 

Microsoft announced this past summer that the Windows Phone Marketplace surpassed 30,000 apps, a little less than one year after the initial launch of Windows Phone 7. This means that 20,000 apps were added in a period of about four months, a good sign for Microsoft in 2012 in terms of app growth. 

For comparison purposes, Apple's App Store currently has over 500,000 apps, while Google's Android Market has about 380,000. 

2012 CES will be Microsoft’s last one

Microsoft announced today that it will no longer be participating in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) after the 2012 conference this January. The company says that its product timelines do not match up with the show's January timing, but Microsoft plans to continue to participate in the show. 

• What’s the right time and place to make announcements?
• Are we adjusting to the changing dynamics of our customers?
• Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because “it’s the way we’ve always done it”?

After thinking about questions like these, we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES. We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.

CES 2012 begins January 9. 

Microsoft releases “Kinectimals” for iOS devices

Today, Microsoft released Kinectimals (App Store link) for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The app is focused for younger children and allows them to interact with virtual animals. The game first made an appearance alongside the release of the Kinect motion sensor for the Xbox 360 last year. 

This irresistible mobile experience gives you the chance to use your phone to visit the island of Lemuria and play with, care for and fall in love with your very own cub. Bring your pet with you wherever you go! If you’ve already experienced Kinectimals on Kinect for Xbox 360, your phone becomes the key to unlocking five new cubs on your console. Stand-alone mobile game features Kinectimals’ signature visual quality, delightful animation and brand new ways to play with your cub! 

The game costs $2.99 to download. 

1.7 million Xbox 360 units sold in U.S. in November

Microsoft announced yesterday record sales of the Xbox 360 game console in the United States during the month of November, which was listed at 1.7 million units. The company says that the Xbox 360 is the only current-generation game console that sold more than one million units and the number nearly doubled the second-place console. 

• Holding 49 percent share of the overall current-generation console market, Xbox 360 sold 1.7 million units in November, maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. for 2011. This marks the ninth consecutive month Xbox 360 has had more than 40 percent of the current-generation console market share, and eleventh straight month the Xbox was the top selling console in the U.S.
• Xbox 360 unit sales grew 23 percent year over year in November.
• Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in November (hardware, software and accessories) reached $1.4 billion, the most for any console in the U.S.
• During the month of November, Xbox 360 held four of the top 10 console game titles including: “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,” “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” and “Battlefield 3”.

Microsoft revealed last month that it sold 960,000 Xbox 360 units during the week of Black Friday, with 800,000 sold in a period of 24 hours.