Microsoft Mesh and the Zune players
Microsoft Seeks Mesh Sizzle - Forbes.com
Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) demonstrated its grand vision for the future of Web-based software and services at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco Wednesday, even as it prepared to talk about the state of its current business on its quarterly earnings call with investors on Thursday.Written by Alfred @ Zune MAX - Visit my Zune Card in the Zune forums now!No tag for this post.Microsoft’s pitch is simple: Today’s world is all about the Internet. Microsoft wants to use the Internet to synchronize a user’s data, applications and panoply of devices into a single living “mesh.” The project, Live Mesh, helmed by chief software architect Ray Ozzie, has been in development for two years as Microsoft has struggled to move from the stronghold it built on the PC desktop with Windows to the untamed Web, where it competes for turf with Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) and a host of online upstarts.
Microsoft could certainly use sizzle from its online adventures. Analysts predict Microsoft will report Thursday that earnings have sagged 14% during its fiscal third quarter in contrast to a year ago, when the company enjoyed a one-time pop created as it rolled out Windows Vista and a new edition of Microsoft Office. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is expected to report earnings of $4.2 billion, or 44 cents a share, on sales of $14.5 billion, according to consensus estimates published by Thomson Reuters. By contrast, during the same quarter a year ago, Microsoft earned $4.8 billion, or 49 cents a share, on sales of $14.4 billion.
