Microsoft

Netflix and the golden era of couch potatoes

TV is clearly outshining the movies. But when will we know if original content from companies like Netflix is a workable business?

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Television is enjoying something of a golden age. With shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones drawing praise as well as rabidly loyal viewers, it's often remarked that TV is better than the movies. And, because golden ages can create MORE

Much like Google, Microsoft also scans your email

Microsoft's ads make Google's email scanning sound sinister, but its own scanning - to block spam - isn't much different.

FORTUNE -- Microsoft's anti-Google "Scroogled" campaign is based largely on the contention that rival Google "goes through" private email in order to target ads at users based on keywords. And that's technically true. It's also technically true that Microsoft, too, "goes through" private email, though its intent is different: Microsoft's Outlook.com MORE

We know why Apple makes computers. But why Google?

Chart of the week: Horace Dediu follows the money

FORTUNE -- Asymco's Horace Dediu, the master of the tech industry informational graphic, outdid himself with the set of bar charts he posted Friday comparing the revenue and operating income of Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Samsung and Amazon (AMZN).

The impetus for "Bits v. Bytes: Follow the money" was the announcement last week of Google's first fully branded hardware product, a MORE

A new kerfuffle behind Microsoft's anti-Google campaign

To advance its surprisingly negative "Scroogled" campaign against Google, Microsoft is directing people to Care2, a petition site aimed at "making the world a better place." Care2 is reconsidering its terms of service.

FORTUNE -- The main reaction to Microsoft's "Scroogled" ad campaign against Google has been surprise at the level of negativity. "Fearmongering," The Verge calls it.

The campaign tells Internet users that they're being "scroogled" by Google's practice of "reading" data MORE

Microsoft Office and Apple's iPads: Money left on the table?

Putting Office exclusively on Windows tablets may be a costly mistake, says analyst

FORTUNE -- Two and a half billion dollars.

That's how much Morgan Stanley's Adam Holt estimates Microsoft (MSFT) may be leaving on the table by not offering a full version of its Office suite (Word, Excel, etc.) on Apple's (AAPL) iPads.

Here how he gets that number.

For starters he estimates that Microsoft probably sold fewer than 1 million Windows-based tablets MORE

'Apple-like' lines for Microsoft's Surface Pro (photos, video)

For the first time in years, Microsoft Windows partisans have something to crow about

FORTUNE -- "Critics will be disappointed to discover that Surface Pro is in fact flying off the shelves."

So wrote long-time Windows blogger Paul Thurrott Saturday in an item that passed on, with evident pleasure, reports of "Apple-like" lines at Microsoft's (MSFT) much-maligned retail stores. (See Surface Pro 128 GB Immediately Sells Out.)

I'll leave it others to comment on MORE

Microsoft's Surface Pro: The reviews are in

Verdicts range from "magnificent, a classic" to "hefty and costly and power-hungry"

FORTUNE -- Apple's (AAPL) iPad is currently the most popular tablet computer in the enterprise, according to a Forrester Research survey released earlier this week. But what these workers -- Microsoft's (MSFT) target audience -- really wanted was a tablet that runs Windows.

Enter the Microsoft's Surface Pro. It's scheduled to be released Saturday. The first reviews came in overnight.

Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal: Surface Pro: MORE

BYOD: What do mobile information workers want?

Apple iPhones and -- surprise -- Windows tablets, according to a new Forrester survey

FORTUNE: The graphic above comes from a survey of 9,766 so-called mobile information workers in 17 countries conducted last quarter by Forrester Research for its usual target audience: corporate chief information officers.

One of the questions Forrester was trying to answer is whether the BYOD (bring your own device) trend -- a movement that has undermined the CIOs' MORE

Smartphones: Microsoft and RIM battle for No. 3

As Apple and Google dominate the American market, former leaders Microsoft and RIM find themselves brawling for third.

FORTUNE -- On Jan. 30, Research in Motion -- the Canadian company that once owned the American smartphone industry -- will attempt to regain its foothold with the launch of a new mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10. The company's goal is not to out-innovate the iPhone. Rather, in a market controlled by Apple MORE

Enterprise tech is facing a depressing 2013

Companies are likely to spend on tablets and cloud services—but at the expense of higher margin products.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- As companies around the globe put the final touches on their 2013 budget plans, they are applying a modesty that was rare during earlier decades of Silicon Valley growth. And while many forecasts are calling for stronger spending than we saw in 2012, that's mostly because 2012 was a MORE