Microsoft To Sell Bing Maps, Advertising Sections 61
UnknowingFool writes: Microsoft has announced that they will sell some Bing Maps technology to Uber and their advertising business to AOL. About 1,300 employees are expected to be offered positions in their new companies. CEO Nadella said previously that there would be "tough choices" to be made. Some outside analysts have said neither venture was very profitable for Microsoft and may have been unprofitable at times.
Altough I agree (Score:2)
that Bing maps is a failure, how will Microsoft compete against Google in the search business without maps? Will they integrate Google Maps results to Bing?
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Perhaps they will go all in on Nokia HERE maps...
Re: Altough I agree (Score:2)
I kinda doubt it. Satya Nadella really didn't seem to like the first Nokia purchase, only backpedaling after he himself was stuck with it. Likewise, buying here maps sounds like such a Ballmer move.
In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if Microsoft finally kills windows phone. It's really not Microsoft's bread and butter. Their bread and butter is enterprise grade SaaS and enterprise grade workstations and applications.
Xbox *may* have a future as this third generation is finally profitable, however they've
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In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if Microsoft finally kills windows phone.
In the future? Perhaps if the situation doesn't improve. Right now? Very doubtful... they just recently made a huge investment on making Windows 10 run on Windows Phone and the Universal Windows Platform capable of running the same binaries (with responsive UI) on all devices from phone to IoT to tablet to Xbox to PC to HoloLens and whatever else they dream up.
Also consider that in most markets, Windows Phone is closer in phone marketshare to iOS than iOS is to Android. That's not saying a lot. But WP
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Which is like bragging about Pluto because it's closer to the Sun than to Proxima Centauri.
Third place in the mobile market is a dubious distinction, at best. In reality, Windows phones are irrelevant, but onl
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Which is like bragging about Pluto because it's closer to the Sun than to Proxima Centauri.
Ahh, we've sent probes to Pluto... We can do so again and again...
We aren't even in the realm of dreaming of sending probes to Proxima Centauri...
So, Pluto ain't half bad...
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(getting quite a bit off topic here)
I disagree. I think that we are quite capable of sending a probe to Proxima Centauri.
We just aren't able to send a probe that will send us any meaningful results in less than a few millenia. But I think we could - were we to put our minds to it - develop a probe that could ride out the centuries and send back a signal when it go thtere.
Heck, if were ready to spend a few times the world's yearly GDP (and not let certain political issues like worries like launching large n
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if they can find that itch to scratch, things could change within the course of two or three years.
We've been hearing that every year for the past (almost) 5 years since WP came out.
Re: All tough I agree (FTFY) (Score:2)
Also consider that in most markets, Windows Phone is closer in phone marketshare to iOS than iOS is to Android. That's not saying a lot. But WP is definitely at the #3 spot, and the way this market is... if they can find that itch to scratch, things could change within the course of two or three years.
I disagree - that is saying a lot. And none of it is good. The first horse past the post was 4 lengths ahead of the second, later the same day horse number 3 dragged itself across the finish line - but, in two or three years that horse may win the Melbourne Cup!!. Maybe stick to your day job, you wouldn't last long as a bookie. Tizen, Sailfish, RIM, and Firefox (and possibly Ewebuntu) are all competing for the same low-end market sector as M$ - I seriously doubt any change in strategy by M$ is going to impr
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No.
Definitely no.
The Nokia purchase was a boon for MS and under Satya's leadership is finally bearing fruit. Have you seen the new Lumia 640? Good reviews are ablaze. MS NEEDS to get a foothold in the mobile market. And they are. Not sure why you think they're going to kill it off.
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http://www.computerworld.com/a... [computerworld.com]
'Nuff said.
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The Nokia purchase didn't immediately start being a cash cow? Oh no!
Investors scramble (and I am one) to ask why isn't this investment paying off right now. Short term profits! Short term profits! Gimme money now!
Or you can hold out and wait for MS to actually use the Nokia assets to build up and become formidable marketplace. Here's a great idea, let's withdrawal from the mobile market altogether!
Nadella is not that retarded, he knows the importance of the mobile market and how important it is. MS needs a
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They've been holding out for the long term for about 5 years now. Presently Microsoft loses 12 cents on every mobile device they sell, and that doesn't even count the R&D and marketing costs. There is all of zero indication that things will turn around. Every so often there's a new WP, and the fanboys jump for joy saying that "this is the one that will fix it all, omg its so awesome!" and the result is just crickets.
I've heard it described that developing apps on WP feels as restricted as writing code i
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Although I prefer google maps, bing maps had a few things I liked about it. My favorite feature is Birds Eye view, which uses aerial photos rather than satellite photos. Sometimes that can get you better info from that, since they usually have 4 different perspectives you can rotate through, and they are much closer and more detailed.
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bing maps is also much faster than google maps.
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Not sure if it's everywhere, or just in select cities, or only on faster PCs.
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Yes, it appears they use the aerial imagery to build out and texture map 3d models of buildings, but only in select areas, and not in that many areas, honestly. Around me, none of the area is supported. They simply take the satellite view and use it as a texture map for a 3-d modelled elevation map (so you can see the major elevation changes very roughly modelled, but that's about it). Even in a big city like Chicago, they seem to have a it supported for 10-15 miles from the shore of Lake Michigan, but afte
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My favorite feature is Birds Eye view, which uses aerial photos rather than satellite photos. Sometimes that can get you better info from that, since they usually have 4 different perspectives you can rotate through, and they are much closer and more detailed.
That was true, but Google was pretty quick to copy it. They now seem to have incorporated it into their 3D view as well, which makes panning somewhat better (and more importantly hides the worst defects in the 3D view by limiting the projection to a POV very similar to where the texture map image was taken from).
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The new Microsoft.
Embrace. Decay. Try Again.
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That's not the new Microsoft, that's the Microsoft of the last decade.
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So they should sell Bing, not only Bing Maps.
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It doesn't seem like Microsoft is selling Bing Maps to Uber only some of the underlying tech. I imagine Uber has been courting both MS and Google trying to get some sort of map technology for their business. It's a great business decision on MS's part. There's a high probability what they're selling is not at all risky for Microsoft and they may have also be receiving up front payment which puts the government threat to Uber as a non-factor.
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Another question which is at least as glaring: what would be the reason to keep running Bing at all WITH NO MORE ADVERTISING REVENUE?
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It could be to keep people into their ecosystem. For the same reason they run services such as Hotmail and give Windows 10 for free.
Competition (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I hate Microsoft for all the crap they've pulled over the years, Google should have competition. Without competition they'll become......well, like Microsoft.
Re: Competition (Score:2)
I think that competition is coming in the form of Apple, who it seems is poised to compete with Google's search, in addition to their maps service.
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I still think we'd be better off with three strong competitors in all areas: Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Re: Competition (Score:5, Insightful)
In technology platform wars, there tends to only be two major competitors at any given time, with the third being niche at best, and almost always ignored by the dominant two anyways, so it doesn't change things much IMO.
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BTW for historical reference:
Sega Genesis, SNES, and Turbo Graphix 16
Windows, Mac OS, and OS/2.
Android, iOS, Windows Phone
There are a lot of examples, but while people have heard of the third, basically nobody uses it.
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MS Office/Corel Office/SmartSuite, though that one's a bit murkier since MS Office was clearly #1 pretty early on with the other two fighting over the scraps in specific industries (legal for Corel, wherever IBM could swing it for SmartSuite)
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TurboGrafx-16
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That would be true if the third was not MS. MS always defined itself by how it could screw competition, not compete fairly with them. Skunks don't change their scent.
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I think that competition is coming in the form of Apple, who it seems is poised to compete with Google's search, in addition to their maps service.
I'd be okay with that, but in order for that to be accurate, Apple would have to open up - Apple Maps on Windows Phone and Android, an actual search engine that's usable through a web browser, and presumably, iAds to fund these projects - technically not truly necessary, but I don't see the bean counters being willing to spend iPhone stipends on a project where they're not at least recouping their costs.
Apple competes well on its own platforms, but amongst the reasons why Google is Google is because it's ne
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Seems MS and Facebook should then make a mutual search deal. You gotta pool resources to compete with Google in search-land.
Deal (Score:3)
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Is the "default search provider for AOL" really that prestigious a title to seek? It's been quite some time since AOL had a decent user group. Next up: Microsoft's Bing to become the official search provider of MySpace!
NOT selling Bing Maps (Score:5, Informative)
The headline is horribly misleading. Microsoft is absolutely not selling Bing Maps. They are selling the team that has been gathering street-view imagery. The companies haven't released many details on the deal, but you can imagine that since Uber already has a fleet of vehicles driving around they could pay drivers to capture this imagery while delivering people and save a fair bit of money.
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It doesn't make any sense (capturing the imagery requires specialized hardware), but you can imagine it.
Executive positions in France (Score:3, Funny)
The ones sold to Uber are lucky since I hear Uber is looking for some more executives for their office in France.
What does this mean for Windows Phone? (Score:1)