Today Microsoft released financial figures for the fiscal year ended June 30th. Notably, they announced that annual revenue has surpassed $51 billion. As you can imagine, that gigantic figure is attracting lots of attention, meaning that this announcement from Microsoft’s Cesar Menendez has been somewhat hidden:

Today on the earnings call Microsoft announced that Zune has achieved our goal of one million units sold in, as well as Microsoft earning over $50 billion in annual revenue. We actually went above and beyond our goal: we sold 1.2 million units.

That’s good news for the Zune team! In the comments on that post, Brian points out that Zune’s sales are probably lower than iPod’s in the first year, though it is difficult to compare (given the differences in the size of the market).

Time for a new goal Zune team!

I recently did a couple of guest posts for the last100 blog that WindowsMediaBlog.com readers may be interested in. In part one, I looked at the history of Microsoft’s television-related products and services. In part two, I took a closer look at what the company offers today, and speculated on some of the things that we can expect in the future.

I had fun writing the two posts, and I’d love to know what you think!

I’m sure you know about the Zune’s wireless music sharing capabilities, but I bet you didn’t know that Microsoft wants to pay you a commission when someone purchases a song you have shared! I didn’t either, until I saw this post over at ZuneScene describing a recently discovered Microsoft patent application:

According to the patent, Microsoft would like to erect a system by which pirated music (yes the term pirated is used in the document several times) can be transferred to other Zune devices, and the sender can be paid a sales commission. Of course this would work with legally obtained music also.

Apparently the idea is to make pirated music “encrypted” when shared with another Zune. If I understand this correctly, it works like this. I have a DRM-free song on my Zune and I send it to your Zune. You can then play the song three times, before you have to purchase it. When you do, Zune Marketplace, me, and the copyright holder all get paid.

Converting illegal music into legal music is an interesting concept, but I am not sure how well such a system would work in practice.

You can view the patent details here.

I think Microsoft’s television strategy is pretty clear: throw as many ideas and products out there as you can and see what sticks. With MSN TV, Mediaroom, Windows Media Centre, and a number of other products, you’d think Microsoft would be content to improve what they already have. But no, today they announced LiveStation, a P2P live television broadcasting application built using Silverlight.

The project is a joint venture between Microsoft Research and UK-based Skinkers. Don Dodge has more on the technology behind LiveStation:

LiveStation is built on two research technologies, Pastry and SplitStream, from Microsoft’s Cambridge Research Lab. Pastry is a type of P2P system called a ‘distributed hash table,’ which makes it easier for computers to find and store information, and to organize themselves for collaborative tasks. Splitstream is an application built on top of Pastry which allows real-time streams such as live video to be robustly distributed peer-to-peer.

TechCrunch wrote about LiveStation today too:

And while it is certainly an excellent demonstration of the flexibility of Silverlight, its not even close to being productized and launched. For now, consider it little more than a pretty video.

True enough. You can watch that video here. LiveStation is currently in closed beta. I entered my email at the beta site, so hopefully I’ll get an invite soon.

For more on this story, check out TechMeme.

UPDATE: Long Zheng makes the very good point that
LiveStation isn’t really a Microsoft product.

The BBC has announced a launch date for iPlayer, it’s on demand TV service. Starting July 27th, users will be able to use the software to download popular BBC content seven days after its first transmission. Nothing has changed on the technology front - it will still be Windows-only initially, and it will still use Windows Media DRM (the BBC website says it will work with Windows Media Player 10 or above). The application will be improved too:

Over time other features will be added to the iPlayer including live streaming of programmes, the BBC Radio Player and “series stacking”, which will allow users to download episodes from series retrospectively.

Director General Mark Thompson compared the launch of iPlayer to the launch of color television (which the BBC introduced 40 years ago) in terms of its impact. I think that remains to be seen, but the BBC could indeed be on to something.

I was reading some blog posts about the launch date news, and came across Tim Anderson’s post. He’s excited for the software, but worries that using Microsoft technology could doom the software:

This aspect bothers me as well, not only because of cross-platform issues, but because I question whether Microsoft is able to deliver DRM that just works.

Umm, can you give me an example of any other DRM that “just works”? I don’t think you can use DRM and “just works” in the same sentence, at least not from the consumer’s point of view. Like the Open Source Consortium, I think Tim has picked the wrong enemy.

You may have heard that the BBC recently decided to use the Windows Media format for its on demand service, called iPlayer. It seems that decision has come under fire from an advocacy group called the Open Source Consortium (OSC) who feel that the BBC is unfairly locking the public into Microsoft products. From The Register:

The OSC compared the situation to the European Commission’s prosecution of Microsoft over its bundling of Windows Media Player with Windows. That case was initiated in 2004 by complaints from other vendors, and resulted in European courts imposing a record fine on Redmond, which it is still appealing against.

The same situation that resulted in Windows XP Edition N? That version of the operating system, which ships without Windows Media Player, has been a complete dud with “roughly 1500 units shipped to OEMS, and no reported sales to consumers.” I don’t think the comparison is accurate at all. This is about DRM, not vendor lock-in.

The main reason the BBC decided to go with Windows Media, it seems, was because the format’s DRM features can enable content to become unviewable after 30 days. That was specified by the BBC Trust as a requirement for iPlayer. I am absolutely not a fan of DRM, and I think that’s a very unfortunate requirement indeed.

The OSC thinks DRM-free downloads would be more in the public interest, and I agree with them on that point. I think it’s a shame they have to spin the argument as “being locked in to Microsoft formats” however. The BBC could very well have chosen Apple’s DRM scheme if they had felt it would work for them.

The long and short of it is that the OSC should be fighting DRM, not Microsoft.

Sounds like Microsoft is trying to become a big player in China’s living rooms with their investment last week in Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd., one of China’s largest TV makers. The USD $12.3 million investment ensures that Changhong will develop TVs and other products that can hook up to the Internet.

The deal is about Microsoft’s software, not hardware:

Current versions of Windows are capable of connecting a TV with the Internet, and these types of systems are already available in China.

Changhong’s own M10 Living Room Entertainment Center is an example. Based on Windows XP Media Center Edition, the M10 is designed to connect with a television and comes with a remote control and wireless keyboard, allowing users to access music, videos and the Internet from a couch instead of a desk.

I think Microsoft is simply trying to make some new friends in the emerging Chinese marketplace. If the Changhong deal goes well, it’ll definitely give a boost to both Windows Media Center and the recently announced Mediaroom too.

Microsoft also signed an agreement with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) last week. Financial terms were not disclosed, but SMG agreed to “use Microsoft products across its new-media division, which includes Internet video, IPTV and mobile television.”

I expect we’ll hear more from Microsoft in China very soon!

One of the tech industry blogs that I consider to be a “must read” is Mashable. Not only do they offer a ton of very timely news, they have some great analysis too, which generally leads to healthy discussion. The latest such post is entitled No Download Required: 30+ Apps That Are Killing Microsoft. Inside, author Ben Gold details new online competitors for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and even Windows itself.

Notably absent from the list of applications is Windows Media Player.

Perhaps this is because it is more difficult to make an online media playing application than an online word processor. Or, perhaps it is because Windows Media Player is a pretty decent application. I have some issues with version 11, but generally speaking, it’s a solid piece of software.

WMP is fast, has pretty good codec support, and handles large libraries of media very well. It integrates with a number of online stores, and synchronizes with mobile devices superbly. Ripping and burning CDs is also a pretty good experience inside WMP.

And yet it could be so much more! If I were Microsoft, I’d treat the Mashable post as a call to action for the WMP team. Take WMP to the next level by extending it to the web before the competition beats you to it! Here’s an example of what I mean: make a Facebook application and WMP plugin that displays what I’m listening to on my profile page, just like the plugin for Windows Live Messenger. Or revamp the wmplugins.com site and integrate it into the application itself.

And please, please do something about the lack of podcasting support. That should be priority #1!

I think the Zune is a very good first entry into the market for Microsoft, but there’s no way I’d be tattooing the Zune logo on my body, let alone more than once! Yet someone did. You’ve probably heard about “mszunefan” by now - here he is with his two tattoos:

It turns out that getting those tattoos was a good investment! According to Engadget, Microsoft has decided to fly its biggest Zune fan out to Redmond to meet the Zune team! He’ll also do an interview for Microsoft’s Channel 10.

If I were mszunefan I’d be thinking “who’s laughing now?” Heheh…well done sir.

There are hundreds and hundreds of Microsoft bloggers out there on the Internets, yet very few (if any) focus on Windows Media and related technologies. Heck, there are very few bloggers in general that post about Windows Media stuff! The very lofty aim of this blog is to change that.

First, an introduction! My name is Mack, and I usually blog here. I run a small software company called Paramagnus with my friend and business partner Dickson. In September 2006 we launched Podcast Spot, a hosting service for podcasters. One of the really cool things we do is automatic media conversion, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time mucking around with Windows Media and other audio and video formats. I am not anti-Apple or anything, but I don’t own an iPod, nor do I use iTunes. I have a Creative Zen Touch, an Xbox, an Xbox 360, and I use Windows Media Player 11 (which I reviewed here) pretty much exclusively.

I look forward to bringing you news, updates, tips, tricks and other thoughts related to Windows Media. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me! On with the blog