Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Personally, I think Microsoft will wait until Steve Ballmer has had the chance to give us his pre-CES keynote demo, using the opportunity for a “big reveal” of hitherto unknown features that some hope will be unveiled – otherwise a keynote without a surprise won’t impress the blogosphere too much.
So, hang onto your hats. The Windows 7 beta is coming soon, and we’ll all have at least 6 months to test it before Microsoft will ask everyone to open their wallets and buy the final release copy.
Let’s just hope that Microsoft decides to lower its retail prices when the RTM is reached, making Windows 7 truly attractive for netbook buyers who want to upgrade – and everyone else that isn’t otherwise going to stick with XP, Vista, Mac or free Linux.
After all, XP is what held users back from upgrading to Vista, mainly because they already had an operating system and software they were (mostly) happy with. In times of economic crisis, who wants to spend more money?
But many have questioned how much of an impact lower prices would have on Microsoft, with Microsoft itself blaming netbooks and lower XP revenue for its own financial shortfall in the last quarter.
I still think that Windows Vista Ultimate users should get a free copy of Windows 7 as the "ultimate" ultimate extra, while Windows 7 upgrade and full retail prices should be lowered to encourage as many people to upgrade as possible.
There'll also be cries of "wait for Windows 7 SP1" from some quarters, although I've personally been very happy with Windows 7 thus far, and also can't wait for the official beta to be released.
Finally, Microsoft - given that so many people own more than one computer these days, how about a realistically priced "family" edition of Windows 7, following the system Apple uses for Mac OS X?
Windows 7 is your big chance to win back lost mindshare, fight off Linux, grow your own revenues through many more legitimate sales than would otherwise occur with high prices and stimulate the Windows economy for yourself and all your partners.
Don't blow it, or the temptation, rise and popularity of ever-sophsitcated free Linux distros could blow you away!
Update: A supposedly real, yet still pirated edition of Windows 7 beta 1 has hit the torrents, please click here for all the details! The original story continues below.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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