Will Microsoft’s Executive Shuffle Scare Yahoo?
If there was apprehension at Yahoo already about the prospect of a takeover by Microsoft, the fear will no doubt increase as those in Sunnyvale study the details of Microsoft’s reorganization announced Thursday.
There is a consensus at Yahoo that many of Microsoft’s ills can be traced to near paralysis that stemmed from its complex matrixed organization, excessive bureaucracy, and war between competing internal units.
Microsoft has long thrived with a bifurcated organization—half the company devoted to engineering, the other half to sales and marketing. This worked well enough in a software world where the engineers would hand a gold master CD of a program every year or two to the sales side which would take it to market.
The Internet, where product cycles are months, sometimes weeks, generally requires much more tight coordination between functions.
Microsoft is positioning many of its online sites as Internet extensions of its software products. That led to the renaming, for example, of its Hotmail service, once the market leader, as “Windows Live Hotmail,” a brand that resonates with few outside of Redmond.
Microsoft looked like it was trying to overcome some of these problems and create more accountability two years ago when it hired Steve Berkowitz, the former head of Ask Jeeves, to be the senior vice president of what it called the online services group. But Mr. Berkowitz never had control of the engineering teams for the products he was charged with running, which created friction within Microsoft, according to Internet company executives.
Mr. Berkowitz will leave Microsoft this summer after a short transition.
The online business will now be split between four executives, who all work for Kevin Johnson, a former I.B.M sales executive. Three of those four make up a group charged with the overall strategy and marketing for Microsoft’s Internet services.
Marketing and product management for Microsoft’s online operations will be handled by Bill Veghte, who also performs that role for Windows Vista and its successors. (His unit is called the online services & windows business group.)
Satya Nadella, a longtime engineer, now will run what is called the search, portals and advertising group. Mostly, this will look after the engineering for Microsoft’s Web search, advertising systems and related systems. Awkwardly, he will also have responsibility for the programming of the MSN portal, which is run by Joanne Bradford.
Mr. Nadella doesn’t even control all the technology related to the Internet operations. Steven Sinofsky, runs engineering for both user interface of Windows and the Windows Live services like e-mail and instant messaging. Mr. Sinofsky, however, is not part of the three-person group overseeing online strategy.
The third member of the Microsoft online triumvirate is Brian McAndrews, the former chief executive of aQuantive, the advertising company Microsoft bought last year. His area is dubbed the advertiser and publisher solutions group, includes both engineering and marketing for the company’s advertising systems.
A Microsoft spokesman said its too early to say whether this structure is what the company will use if it succeeds in buying Yahoo.
For Microsoft to get its $45 billion worth out of Yahoo and create a real challenge to Google, it will need to have a much more nimble structure, with clear lines of responsibility, and an unambiguous mandate to win online without any regard for the effect on the Windows franchise.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Nintendo's Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360
Wii to Displace Xbox 360 by End of 2008
Nintendo's Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, according to market research firm iSuppli.
Nintendo's popular Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, iSuppli said Thursday.
The market researcher forecasted that the global installed base of Wii game consoles will rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million in 2007, putting it ahead of the Xbox 360's projected 25.7 million units.
The Wii is already riding a wave of popularity that saw it win the greatest growth among new game consoles last year, according to iSuppli figures. There were only 3.2 million units in people's homes at the end of 2006, jumping to 18 million at the end of last year. The Xbox 360 retained its lead as the console in most homes last year by edging out the Wii with 18.2 million units, while the PlayStation 3 lagged rivals with 10.3 million, up from 1.8 million per year earlier.
iSuppli did not include older game consoles or handhelds in their report.
The market researcher chalks up Nintendo's success to a strategy of offering a lower-cost game console targeted at everyday people, rather than an expensive console with the latest graphics aimed at video game lovers. The main difference between the Wii and its rivals is the wireless controller and sensors that detect hand motion and speed. The innovation puts motion into gaming, because users swing the Wii controller to hit virtual baseballs and golf balls on their TV screens, go bowling and fight in boxing.
The Wii currently sells for $249.99 in the U.S., according to electronic retailer Best Buy's Web site, while the Xbox 360 costs $349.99 and the PlayStation 3 $399.99.
more.....
Wii Expected To Take Installed-Base Lead From Xbox
If Nintendo succeeds, then it would be the first time that the Wii has taken the lead among new-generation home video game consoles.
The popularity of Nintendo's Wii among casual gamers is expected to power the video game console's installed base this year ahead of current leader Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Xbox 360, a market research firm said Thursday.
The installed base of the Wii is expected to rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million last year, iSuppli said. This will take the Wii beyond the Xbox 360's projected total of 25.7 million this year.
If Nintendo succeeds, then it would be the first time that the Wii has taken the installed-base lead among new-generation home video game consoles, a market that consists of the Wii, Xbox 360, and Sony's PlayStation 3.
"The Wii's performance illustrates the success of Nintendo's strategy of targeting casual users with an inexpensive console and entertaining titles, rather than addressing hard-core gamers by offering highly sophisticated and spectacular titles and systems," iSuppli analyst Pam Tufegdzic said in a statement. "In this stage of the new-generation video game console market, consumers are showing they'd rather be entertained and pay less for their consoles than shell out more for the latest and greatest technology."
While hardcore gamers have been the traditional targets of console makers, the market is shifting as the number of casual gamers grows. A casual player is defined as someone who plays a video game occasionally for an hour or two.
However, hardcore gamers are expected to eventually push the installed base of the PlayStation 3 beyond that of the Wii, iSuppli said. By 2011, the PlayStation 3 is expected to have an installed-base of 38.4 million units, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 39% from 10.3 million units last year.
Wii's base is expected to grow to 37.7 million units by 2011 with a CAGR of just more than 20%. The Xbox 360 is expected to fall to third with a base of 32.3 million units in three years, rising at a CAGR of 15.4% from 18.2 million units last year.
Last year was a record year for the video game industry. Sales of hardware, software, and accessories soared by 43% from 2006 to $17.94 billion, according to the NPD Group.
Nintendo's Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, according to market research firm iSuppli.
Nintendo's popular Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, iSuppli said Thursday.
The market researcher forecasted that the global installed base of Wii game consoles will rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million in 2007, putting it ahead of the Xbox 360's projected 25.7 million units.
The Wii is already riding a wave of popularity that saw it win the greatest growth among new game consoles last year, according to iSuppli figures. There were only 3.2 million units in people's homes at the end of 2006, jumping to 18 million at the end of last year. The Xbox 360 retained its lead as the console in most homes last year by edging out the Wii with 18.2 million units, while the PlayStation 3 lagged rivals with 10.3 million, up from 1.8 million per year earlier.
iSuppli did not include older game consoles or handhelds in their report.
The market researcher chalks up Nintendo's success to a strategy of offering a lower-cost game console targeted at everyday people, rather than an expensive console with the latest graphics aimed at video game lovers. The main difference between the Wii and its rivals is the wireless controller and sensors that detect hand motion and speed. The innovation puts motion into gaming, because users swing the Wii controller to hit virtual baseballs and golf balls on their TV screens, go bowling and fight in boxing.
The Wii currently sells for $249.99 in the U.S., according to electronic retailer Best Buy's Web site, while the Xbox 360 costs $349.99 and the PlayStation 3 $399.99.
more.....
Wii Expected To Take Installed-Base Lead From Xbox
If Nintendo succeeds, then it would be the first time that the Wii has taken the lead among new-generation home video game consoles.
The popularity of Nintendo's Wii among casual gamers is expected to power the video game console's installed base this year ahead of current leader Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Xbox 360, a market research firm said Thursday.
The installed base of the Wii is expected to rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million last year, iSuppli said. This will take the Wii beyond the Xbox 360's projected total of 25.7 million this year.
If Nintendo succeeds, then it would be the first time that the Wii has taken the installed-base lead among new-generation home video game consoles, a market that consists of the Wii, Xbox 360, and Sony's PlayStation 3.
"The Wii's performance illustrates the success of Nintendo's strategy of targeting casual users with an inexpensive console and entertaining titles, rather than addressing hard-core gamers by offering highly sophisticated and spectacular titles and systems," iSuppli analyst Pam Tufegdzic said in a statement. "In this stage of the new-generation video game console market, consumers are showing they'd rather be entertained and pay less for their consoles than shell out more for the latest and greatest technology."
While hardcore gamers have been the traditional targets of console makers, the market is shifting as the number of casual gamers grows. A casual player is defined as someone who plays a video game occasionally for an hour or two.
However, hardcore gamers are expected to eventually push the installed base of the PlayStation 3 beyond that of the Wii, iSuppli said. By 2011, the PlayStation 3 is expected to have an installed-base of 38.4 million units, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 39% from 10.3 million units last year.
Wii's base is expected to grow to 37.7 million units by 2011 with a CAGR of just more than 20%. The Xbox 360 is expected to fall to third with a base of 32.3 million units in three years, rising at a CAGR of 15.4% from 18.2 million units last year.
Last year was a record year for the video game industry. Sales of hardware, software, and accessories soared by 43% from 2006 to $17.94 billion, according to the NPD Group.
Nanotechnology researchers are developing “power shirt”
Remarkable new nano-fiber clothing may someday power your iPod
Nanotechnology researchers are developing the perfect complement to the power tie: a “power shirt” able to generate electricity to power small electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers and others whose physical motion could be harnessed and converted to electrical energy.
The February 14 issue of the journal Nature details how pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires can generate electrical current using the piezoelectric effect. Combining current flow from many fiber pairs woven into a shirt or jacket could allow the wearer’s body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices. The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibration or other mechanical energy.
“The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from physical movement,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “If we can combine many of these fibers in double or triple layers in clothing, we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would allow people to generate their own electrical current while walking.”
The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology.
The microfiber-nanowire hybrid system builds on the nanowire nanogenerator that Wang’s research team announced in April 2007. That system generates current from arrays of vertically-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires that flex beneath an electrode containing conductive platinum tips. The nanowire nanogenerator was designed to harness energy from environmental sources such as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibrations or blood flow.
The nanogenerators developed by Wang’s research group take advantage of the unique coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide nanostructures, which produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. After a year of development, the original nanogenerators – which are two by three millimeters square – can produce up to 800 nanoamperes and 20 millivolts.
The microfiber generators rely on the same principles, but are made from soft materials and designed to capture energy from low-frequency mechanical energy. They consist of DuPont Kevlar fibers on which zinc oxide nanowires have been grown radially and embedded in a polymer at their roots, creating what appear to be microscopic baby-bottle brushes with billions of bristles. One of the fibers in each pair is also coated with gold to serve as the electrode and to deflect the nanowire tips.
The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching, and the piezoelectric-semiconductor process converts the mechanical motion into electrical energy,” Wang explained. “Many of these devices could be put together to produce higher power output.”
Wang and collaborators Xudong Wang and Yong Qin have made more than 200 of the fiber nanogenerators. Each is tested on an apparatus that uses a spring and wheel to move one fiber against the other. The fibers are rubbed together for up to 30 minutes to test their durability and power production.
So far, the researchers have measured current of about four nanoamperes and output voltage of about four millivolts from a nanogenerator that included two fibers that were each one centimeter long. With a much improved design, Wang estimates that a square meter of fabric made from the special fibers could theoretically generate as much as 80 milliwatts of power.
Fabrication of the microfiber nanogenerator begins with coating a 100-nanometer seed layer of zinc oxide onto the Kevlar using magnetron sputtering. The fibers are then immersed in a reactant solution for approximately 12 hours, which causes nanowires to grow from the seed layer at a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius. The growth produces uniform coverage of the fibers, with typical lengths of about 3.5 microns and several hundred nanometers between each fiber.
To help maintain the nanowires’ connection to the Kevlar, the researchers apply two layers of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) to the fiber. “First we coat the fiber with the polymer, then with a zinc oxide layer,” Wang explained. “Then we grow the nanowires and re-infiltrate the fiber with the polymer. This helps to avoid scrubbing off the nanowires when the fibers rub together.”
Finally, the researchers apply a 300 nanometer layer of gold to some of the nanowire-covered Kevlar. The two different fibers are then paired up and entangled to ensure that a gold-coated fiber contacts a fiber covered only with zinc oxide nanowires. The gold fibers serve as a Shottky barrier with the zinc oxide, substituting for the platinum-tipped electrode used in the original nanogenerator.
To ensure that the current they measured was produced by the piezoelectric-semiconductor effect and not just static electricity, the researchers conducted several tests. They tried rubbing gold fibers together, and zinc oxide fibers together, neither of which produced current. They also reversed the polarity of the connections, which changed the output current and voltage.
By allowing nanowire growth to take place at temperatures as low as 80 degrees Celsius, the new fabrication technique would allow the nanostructures to be grown on virtually any shape or substrate.
As a next step, the researchers want to combine multiple fiber pairs to increase the current and voltage levels. They also plan to improve conductance of their fibers.
However, one significant challenge lies head for the power shirt – washing it. Zinc oxide is sensitive to moisture, so in real shirts or jackets, the nanowires would have to be protected from the effects of the washing machine, Wang noted.
Nanotechnology researchers are developing the perfect complement to the power tie: a “power shirt” able to generate electricity to power small electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers and others whose physical motion could be harnessed and converted to electrical energy.
The February 14 issue of the journal Nature details how pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires can generate electrical current using the piezoelectric effect. Combining current flow from many fiber pairs woven into a shirt or jacket could allow the wearer’s body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices. The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibration or other mechanical energy.
“The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from physical movement,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “If we can combine many of these fibers in double or triple layers in clothing, we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would allow people to generate their own electrical current while walking.”
The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology.
The microfiber-nanowire hybrid system builds on the nanowire nanogenerator that Wang’s research team announced in April 2007. That system generates current from arrays of vertically-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires that flex beneath an electrode containing conductive platinum tips. The nanowire nanogenerator was designed to harness energy from environmental sources such as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibrations or blood flow.
The nanogenerators developed by Wang’s research group take advantage of the unique coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide nanostructures, which produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. After a year of development, the original nanogenerators – which are two by three millimeters square – can produce up to 800 nanoamperes and 20 millivolts.
The microfiber generators rely on the same principles, but are made from soft materials and designed to capture energy from low-frequency mechanical energy. They consist of DuPont Kevlar fibers on which zinc oxide nanowires have been grown radially and embedded in a polymer at their roots, creating what appear to be microscopic baby-bottle brushes with billions of bristles. One of the fibers in each pair is also coated with gold to serve as the electrode and to deflect the nanowire tips.
The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching, and the piezoelectric-semiconductor process converts the mechanical motion into electrical energy,” Wang explained. “Many of these devices could be put together to produce higher power output.”
Wang and collaborators Xudong Wang and Yong Qin have made more than 200 of the fiber nanogenerators. Each is tested on an apparatus that uses a spring and wheel to move one fiber against the other. The fibers are rubbed together for up to 30 minutes to test their durability and power production.
So far, the researchers have measured current of about four nanoamperes and output voltage of about four millivolts from a nanogenerator that included two fibers that were each one centimeter long. With a much improved design, Wang estimates that a square meter of fabric made from the special fibers could theoretically generate as much as 80 milliwatts of power.
Fabrication of the microfiber nanogenerator begins with coating a 100-nanometer seed layer of zinc oxide onto the Kevlar using magnetron sputtering. The fibers are then immersed in a reactant solution for approximately 12 hours, which causes nanowires to grow from the seed layer at a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius. The growth produces uniform coverage of the fibers, with typical lengths of about 3.5 microns and several hundred nanometers between each fiber.
To help maintain the nanowires’ connection to the Kevlar, the researchers apply two layers of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) to the fiber. “First we coat the fiber with the polymer, then with a zinc oxide layer,” Wang explained. “Then we grow the nanowires and re-infiltrate the fiber with the polymer. This helps to avoid scrubbing off the nanowires when the fibers rub together.”
Finally, the researchers apply a 300 nanometer layer of gold to some of the nanowire-covered Kevlar. The two different fibers are then paired up and entangled to ensure that a gold-coated fiber contacts a fiber covered only with zinc oxide nanowires. The gold fibers serve as a Shottky barrier with the zinc oxide, substituting for the platinum-tipped electrode used in the original nanogenerator.
To ensure that the current they measured was produced by the piezoelectric-semiconductor effect and not just static electricity, the researchers conducted several tests. They tried rubbing gold fibers together, and zinc oxide fibers together, neither of which produced current. They also reversed the polarity of the connections, which changed the output current and voltage.
By allowing nanowire growth to take place at temperatures as low as 80 degrees Celsius, the new fabrication technique would allow the nanostructures to be grown on virtually any shape or substrate.
As a next step, the researchers want to combine multiple fiber pairs to increase the current and voltage levels. They also plan to improve conductance of their fibers.
However, one significant challenge lies head for the power shirt – washing it. Zinc oxide is sensitive to moisture, so in real shirts or jackets, the nanowires would have to be protected from the effects of the washing machine, Wang noted.
the world’s oceans have been damaged in some way by human activity
Scientists Say:Nearly All Oceans Damaged by Human Activities, Scientists Say
Nearly every corner of the world’s oceans have been damaged in some way by human activity and 41 percent has a “medium high” or “high” impact, a new research released Thursday has found.
Scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, U.S., said that people were having a major impact on the oceans and the marine ecosystem within them.
“In the past, many studies have shown the impact of individual activities. But here for the first time we have produced a global map of all of these different activities layered on top of each other so that we can get this big picture of the overall impact that humans are having rather than just single impacts,” lead scientist, Dr. Benjamin Halpern of the National Center for Ecological Analysis said.
The map showed that more than 40 percent of the world’s marine ecosystems are heavily affected. Major hot spots include the North Sea off the northern coast of Europe and Asia’s South China Sea and East China Sea.
“Those area are definitely in a degraded state, and a state that if people went diving it, probably would not be too happy to be in,” Halpern said.
Only 3.7 percent of the oceans have seen little or no impact from human activity, but that is because they seem to be free of daily human activity. These oceans lie near the North and South poles.
The team of 20 international scientists looked at the damaging impact resulted from 17 human activities, including commercial fishing, runoff from development, invasive species, industrial pollution, oil rigs, and effects of climate change.
Climate change seems to be the biggest damage brought to oceans, while shipping traffic is the third largest culprit because there is simply so much of it.
“The fuel gets spilled, there’s noise pollution which is disturbing to whales and such…which has a major affect of the ecosystem,” the report said.
The researchers said the report was meant to sound an alarm to environmental groups and governments about the daily degradation of the oceans.
“Hopefully, this is a wake-up call showing our impacts are on the oceans and what can be done to minimize them,” Halpern said.
Nearly every corner of the world’s oceans have been damaged in some way by human activity and 41 percent has a “medium high” or “high” impact, a new research released Thursday has found.
Scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, U.S., said that people were having a major impact on the oceans and the marine ecosystem within them.
“In the past, many studies have shown the impact of individual activities. But here for the first time we have produced a global map of all of these different activities layered on top of each other so that we can get this big picture of the overall impact that humans are having rather than just single impacts,” lead scientist, Dr. Benjamin Halpern of the National Center for Ecological Analysis said.
The map showed that more than 40 percent of the world’s marine ecosystems are heavily affected. Major hot spots include the North Sea off the northern coast of Europe and Asia’s South China Sea and East China Sea.
“Those area are definitely in a degraded state, and a state that if people went diving it, probably would not be too happy to be in,” Halpern said.
Only 3.7 percent of the oceans have seen little or no impact from human activity, but that is because they seem to be free of daily human activity. These oceans lie near the North and South poles.
The team of 20 international scientists looked at the damaging impact resulted from 17 human activities, including commercial fishing, runoff from development, invasive species, industrial pollution, oil rigs, and effects of climate change.
Climate change seems to be the biggest damage brought to oceans, while shipping traffic is the third largest culprit because there is simply so much of it.
“The fuel gets spilled, there’s noise pollution which is disturbing to whales and such…which has a major affect of the ecosystem,” the report said.
The researchers said the report was meant to sound an alarm to environmental groups and governments about the daily degradation of the oceans.
“Hopefully, this is a wake-up call showing our impacts are on the oceans and what can be done to minimize them,” Halpern said.
Astronauts To Attach Science Experiments In Final Spacewalk
The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle-station complex prepared Friday for the last spacewalk of their joint mission, an outing to attach science experiments to the outside of the new Columbus lab.
Station commander Peggy Whitson helped spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Stanley Love don their spacesuits, moving so quickly the duo was left with a half-hour break before they could start the final tasks to get them out the door. Whitson suggested they take a nap.
"There's no napping in spaceflight!" Walheim quipped.
Walheim and Love were scheduled to spend about 6 1/2 hours installing the experiments, retrieving an old space station gyroscope and, if there's time, examining a tiny chip on a handrail near the spacewalk hatch and a jammed solar rotary joint.
The astronauts awoke Friday to a song by German Drafi Deutscher whose title translates to "Marble Breaks and Iron Bends." German astronaut Hans Schlegel said the tune, popular in his youth, talks about finding one great love.
"I'm very fortunate that I found that in my wife, Heike," he said.
One of the pieces of equipment that Walheim and Love will install is an observatory to monitor the sun. The other will carry several experiments requiring exposure to the uniquely harsh environment of space.
Once those are attached to Columbus and the gyroscope is stowed in the shuttle's cargo bay, the spacewalkers hope to turn their attention to two trouble spots on the station.
The chip — discovered by Love during Monday's spacewalk and thus dubbed Love Crater — is the apparent result of a micrometeorite strike. It may be where spacewalking astronauts have torn their gloves over the past year or so. To find out, Walheim and Love will run a spare glove over the hole to see if the material snags.
The pair also hopes to have time to inspect the rotary joint, which is needed to turn one of the space station's two sets of huge solar wings. Spacewalkers have peered inside several times since the joint broke last fall, but NASA is still trying to determine what is causing the metal parts to grind, clogging the joint with shavings.
While the spacewalkers are outside, other crew members will continue working inside Columbus to get the lab ready to produce science in the coming days.
Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the space station on Monday and land in Florida on Wednesday.
more...
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be working with Atlantis astronauts on the final spacewalk. The last bit of work that needs to be done consists of attaching science experiments to the outside of the European Space Agency lab Columbus. They hope to finish preparations for the spacewalk on Friday before they then finish the mission.
The spacewalk will have astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love working for over six-hours-straight. This is going to be a long spacewalk as they have to install all of the experiments onto the Columbus lab.
One of the things they will be installing will be an observatory which will allow them to monitor the sun.
They also have to retrieve an old space station gyroscope, and try to repair a solar rotary joint. The other issue on the International Space Station has to do with a chip which was found during a spacewalk on Monday. It is believed to be on a handrail where the spacewalk begins.
Atlantis will make its return to Earth next week, landing in Florida on Wednesday. It will undock from the International Space Station on Monday.
Station commander Peggy Whitson helped spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Stanley Love don their spacesuits, moving so quickly the duo was left with a half-hour break before they could start the final tasks to get them out the door. Whitson suggested they take a nap.
"There's no napping in spaceflight!" Walheim quipped.
Walheim and Love were scheduled to spend about 6 1/2 hours installing the experiments, retrieving an old space station gyroscope and, if there's time, examining a tiny chip on a handrail near the spacewalk hatch and a jammed solar rotary joint.
The astronauts awoke Friday to a song by German Drafi Deutscher whose title translates to "Marble Breaks and Iron Bends." German astronaut Hans Schlegel said the tune, popular in his youth, talks about finding one great love.
"I'm very fortunate that I found that in my wife, Heike," he said.
One of the pieces of equipment that Walheim and Love will install is an observatory to monitor the sun. The other will carry several experiments requiring exposure to the uniquely harsh environment of space.
Once those are attached to Columbus and the gyroscope is stowed in the shuttle's cargo bay, the spacewalkers hope to turn their attention to two trouble spots on the station.
The chip — discovered by Love during Monday's spacewalk and thus dubbed Love Crater — is the apparent result of a micrometeorite strike. It may be where spacewalking astronauts have torn their gloves over the past year or so. To find out, Walheim and Love will run a spare glove over the hole to see if the material snags.
The pair also hopes to have time to inspect the rotary joint, which is needed to turn one of the space station's two sets of huge solar wings. Spacewalkers have peered inside several times since the joint broke last fall, but NASA is still trying to determine what is causing the metal parts to grind, clogging the joint with shavings.
While the spacewalkers are outside, other crew members will continue working inside Columbus to get the lab ready to produce science in the coming days.
Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the space station on Monday and land in Florida on Wednesday.
more...
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be working with Atlantis astronauts on the final spacewalk. The last bit of work that needs to be done consists of attaching science experiments to the outside of the European Space Agency lab Columbus. They hope to finish preparations for the spacewalk on Friday before they then finish the mission.
The spacewalk will have astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love working for over six-hours-straight. This is going to be a long spacewalk as they have to install all of the experiments onto the Columbus lab.
One of the things they will be installing will be an observatory which will allow them to monitor the sun.
They also have to retrieve an old space station gyroscope, and try to repair a solar rotary joint. The other issue on the International Space Station has to do with a chip which was found during a spacewalk on Monday. It is believed to be on a handrail where the spacewalk begins.
Atlantis will make its return to Earth next week, landing in Florida on Wednesday. It will undock from the International Space Station on Monday.
Microsoft Reassigns Several Top Executives
Microsoft Loses Top Executives, Lees To Lead Mobile Division
Microsoft has made some moves as they have moved around many top executives, in moves which should allow them to compete better with Google, and also possibly get ready for the acquisition of Yahoo Inc. One of the big moves was to promote Andrew Lees as head of its mobile phone division.
The movie by Microsoft to promote Lees to the head of the mobile phone division is likely because they need to prepare for an onslaught from Google, as Google has been making big news with the announcement of the Android operating system, a possible Gphone, and more.
Microsoft stated that Lees will atek over as senior vice president from Pieter Knook. Lees’ current role is vice president of marketing for server software.
Pieter Knook will be leaving to head up Vodafone.
Microsoft is not done moving around executives though as the head of MSN is also heading out, Steve Berowitz.
The other loss for Microsoft is Michael Sievert, corporate vice president for Windows product marketing. He is leaving to “pursue other interests.”
more....
Microsoft announced a sweeping shake-up of its executive ranks Thursday, placing new executives over operations facing fierce new competition from Google, Apple and cellphone makers.
The announcements were part of a broad management reorganization involving seven new senior vice presidents and seven new corporate vice presidents.
One of the more significant leadership changes was in the cellphone operations. Andy Lees was named senior vice president for mobile communications operations. Mr. Lees, who had overseen the server business, succeeds Pieter Knook, who, the company said, “made the decision to leave Microsoft to pursue other opportunities.”
Microsoft has been paying more attention to its cellphone business following the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android software operating system. In only a few months of the iPhone’s release, according to Canalys, a market research firm, Apple gained 28 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, a greater share of the market than the cellphones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, leads the category that has been dominated by phones made for business users.
Microsoft is showing more interest in the consumer market. This week it announced it was buying Danger, the maker of the popular Sidekick cellphone.
Analysts said that Microsoft was moving to confront a growing competitive threat from a range of companies that have positioned themselves to offer Web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s core office-productivity applications. The other major change was the replacement of Steve Berkowitz, the current senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services group. Mr. Berkowitz, the former chief executive of the online site Ask Jeeves, was hired with great fanfare in April 2006 to help revive Microsoft’s search and portal operations. Microsoft has been unable to make a dent in Google’s growing dominance in search and search advertising. Mr. Berkowitz will leave the company this August, the company said.
Responsibility for online operation was split among three executives who will work in the combined organization that handles both Internet activities and the Windows operating system, which is run by Kevin Johnson.
Satya Nadella, will be the senior vice president for the search, portals and advertising group. Mr. Nadella is on the engineering side of Microsoft, and will look after the technical side of Web search, advertising systems and related systems. He will also have responsibility for the programming of the MSN portal.
Bill Veghte, will be the senior vice president for online services and Windows, handling sales, marketing and product management both for Windows and online operations.
Brian McAndrews, the senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions group, will look after the strategy and marketing of Microsoft’s online activities jointly with Mr. Veghte and Mr. Nadella.
Microsoft has made some moves as they have moved around many top executives, in moves which should allow them to compete better with Google, and also possibly get ready for the acquisition of Yahoo Inc. One of the big moves was to promote Andrew Lees as head of its mobile phone division.
The movie by Microsoft to promote Lees to the head of the mobile phone division is likely because they need to prepare for an onslaught from Google, as Google has been making big news with the announcement of the Android operating system, a possible Gphone, and more.
Microsoft stated that Lees will atek over as senior vice president from Pieter Knook. Lees’ current role is vice president of marketing for server software.
Pieter Knook will be leaving to head up Vodafone.
Microsoft is not done moving around executives though as the head of MSN is also heading out, Steve Berowitz.
The other loss for Microsoft is Michael Sievert, corporate vice president for Windows product marketing. He is leaving to “pursue other interests.”
more....
Microsoft announced a sweeping shake-up of its executive ranks Thursday, placing new executives over operations facing fierce new competition from Google, Apple and cellphone makers.
The announcements were part of a broad management reorganization involving seven new senior vice presidents and seven new corporate vice presidents.
One of the more significant leadership changes was in the cellphone operations. Andy Lees was named senior vice president for mobile communications operations. Mr. Lees, who had overseen the server business, succeeds Pieter Knook, who, the company said, “made the decision to leave Microsoft to pursue other opportunities.”
Microsoft has been paying more attention to its cellphone business following the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android software operating system. In only a few months of the iPhone’s release, according to Canalys, a market research firm, Apple gained 28 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, a greater share of the market than the cellphones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, leads the category that has been dominated by phones made for business users.
Microsoft is showing more interest in the consumer market. This week it announced it was buying Danger, the maker of the popular Sidekick cellphone.
Analysts said that Microsoft was moving to confront a growing competitive threat from a range of companies that have positioned themselves to offer Web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s core office-productivity applications. The other major change was the replacement of Steve Berkowitz, the current senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services group. Mr. Berkowitz, the former chief executive of the online site Ask Jeeves, was hired with great fanfare in April 2006 to help revive Microsoft’s search and portal operations. Microsoft has been unable to make a dent in Google’s growing dominance in search and search advertising. Mr. Berkowitz will leave the company this August, the company said.
Responsibility for online operation was split among three executives who will work in the combined organization that handles both Internet activities and the Windows operating system, which is run by Kevin Johnson.
Satya Nadella, will be the senior vice president for the search, portals and advertising group. Mr. Nadella is on the engineering side of Microsoft, and will look after the technical side of Web search, advertising systems and related systems. He will also have responsibility for the programming of the MSN portal.
Bill Veghte, will be the senior vice president for online services and Windows, handling sales, marketing and product management both for Windows and online operations.
Brian McAndrews, the senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions group, will look after the strategy and marketing of Microsoft’s online activities jointly with Mr. Veghte and Mr. Nadella.
New Android by google
on Wednesday released an updated version of the software development kit for Android, a Linux-based open development software platform for mobile phones.
The latest version of the SDK, which Google is calling m5-rc14, updates the platform's application programming interfaces and developer tools. Among the improvements are a new user interface and the ability to create layout animations for applications.
In addition, the SDK upgrade offers geo-coding, which enables developers to translate an address into a coordinate and vice-versa and to also search for businesses, Google said. The upgrade also has support for more audio file formats and has an updated Eclipse plug-in.
The new SDK has a new user interface, a geocoder that lets developers search for businesses as well as translate an address into a coordinate and vice versa, support for new media codecs, and code that lets developers create layout animations.
One thing missing is change to the telephony package, laments one developer on the Android Developer discussion on Google Groups.
"This is very disappointing, especially because we were told in the Android coding day in Israel that the telephony package will be updated soon," the developer wrote. "We still cannot detect the ingoing/outgoing call number or send DTMF tones properly." Prototypes of Android phones were shown at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Google launched Android in November along with and the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 handset manufacturers, carriers and chipmakers that have said they plan to support Android products and services. Products are due out later this year.
"Siblings" of Jupiter-Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered
Two newfound extrasolar planets orbiting a star about 5,000 light years away resemble smaller versions of our own Jupiter and Saturn, an international team of astronomers reports.
These planetary "siblings" are about 80 percent as big as our gas giants and orbit a star that's about half the size of the sun.
Earthlike Planet Spied in Distant Solar System (January 26, 2006)
"Search for Other Earths" in National Geographic Magazine (December 2004)
First Habitable Earthlike Planet Found, Experts Say (April 24, 2007)
What's more, the smaller planet lies about twice as far from its star as the larger one, just as Saturn is twice as far from the sun as Jupiter.
"The interesting thing about this system is that it looks very similar to our own solar system, but scaled down," said team leader Scott Gaudi, an astronomer at Ohio State University.
Astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
“It looks like a scale model of our solar system,” said Scott Gaudi, an assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. Dr. Gaudi led an international team of 69 professional and amateur astronomers who announced the discovery in a news conference with reporters.
Their results are being published Friday in the journal Science. The discovery, they said, means that our solar system may be more typical of planetary systems across the universe than had been thought.
In the newly discovered system, a planet about two-thirds of the mass of Jupiter and another about 90 percent of the mass of Saturn are orbiting a reddish star at about half the distances that Jupiter and Saturn circle our own Sun. The star is about half the mass of the Sun.
Neither of the two giant planets is a likely abode for life as we know it. But, Dr. Gaudi said, warm rocky planets — suitable for life — could exist undetected in the inner parts of the system.
“This could be a true solar system analogue,” he said.
Sara Seager, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the team, said that “right now in exoplanets we are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths.” Dr. Seager praised the discovery as “a big step in finding out if our planetary system is alone.”
Since 1995, around 250 planets outside the solar system, or exoplanets, have been discovered. But few of them are in systems that even faintly resemble our own. In many cases, giant Jupiter-like planets are whizzing around in orbits smaller than that of Mercury. But are these typical of the universe?
Almost all of those planets were discovered by the so-called wobble method, in which astronomers measure the gravitational tug of planets on their parent star as they whir around it. This technique is most sensitive to massive planets close to their stars.
The new discovery was made by a different technique that favors planets more distant from their star. It is based on a trick of Einsteinian gravity called microlensing. If, in the ceaseless shifting of the stars, two of them should become almost perfectly aligned with Earth, the gravity of the nearer star can bend and magnify the light from the more distant one, causing it to get much brighter for a few days.
If the alignment is perfect, any big planets attending the nearer star will get into the act, adding their own little boosts to the more distant starlight.
That is exactly what started happening on March 28, 2006, when a star 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius began to pass in front of one 21,000 light-years more distant, causing it to flash. That was picked up by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, or Ogle, a worldwide collaboration of observers who keep watch for such events.
Ogle in turn immediately issued a worldwide call for continuous observations of what is now officially known as OGLE-2006-BLG-109. The next 10 days, as Andrew P. Gould, a professor of mathematical and physical sciences at Ohio State said, were “extremely frenetic.”
Among those who provided crucial data and appeared as lead authors of the paper in Science were a pair of amateur astronomers from Auckland, New Zealand, Jennie McCormick and Grant Christie, both members of a group called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network, or MicroFUN.
Somewhat to the experimenters’ surprise, by clever manipulation they were able to dig out of the data not just the masses of the interloper star and its two planets, but also rough approximations of their orbits, confirming the similarity to our own system. David P. Bennett, an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame, said, “This event has taught us that we were able to learn more about these planets than we thought possible.”
As a result, microlensing is poised to become a major new tool in the planet hunter’s arsenal, “a new flavor of the month,” Dr. Seager said.
Only six planets, including the new ones, have been discovered by microlensing so far, and the Scorpius event being reported Friday is the first in which the alignment of the stars was close enough for astronomers to detect more than one planet at once. Their success at doing just that on their first try bodes well for the future, astronomers say.
Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said, “The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare.”
Microsoft Reassigns Several Top Executives
Microsoft announced a sweeping shake-up of its executive ranks Thursday, placing new executives over operations facing fierce new competition from Google, Apple and cellphone makers.
The announcements were part of a broad management reorganization involving seven new senior vice presidents and seven new corporate vice presidents.
One of the more significant leadership changes was in the cellphone operations. Andy Lees was named senior vice president for mobile communications operations. Mr. Lees, who had overseen the server business, succeeds Pieter Knook, who, the company said, “made the decision to leave Microsoft to pursue other opportunities.”
Microsoft has been paying more attention to its cellphone business following the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android software operating system. In only a few months of the iPhone’s release, according to Canalys, a market research firm, Apple gained 28 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, a greater share of the market than the cellphones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, leads the category that has been dominated by phones made for business users.
Microsoft is showing more interest in the consumer market. This week it announced it was buying Danger, the maker of the popular Sidekick cellphone.
Analysts said that Microsoft was moving to confront a growing competitive threat from a range of companies that have positioned themselves to offer Web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s core office-productivity applications. The other major change was the replacement of Steve Berkowitz, the current senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services group. Mr. Berkowitz, the former chief executive of the online site Ask Jeeves, was hired with great fanfare in April 2006 to help revive Microsoft’s search and portal operations. Microsoft has been unable to make a dent in Google’s growing dominance in search and search advertising. Mr. Berkowitz will leave the company this August, the company said.
Responsibility for online operation was split among three executives who will work in the combined organization that handles both Internet activities and the Windows operating system, which is run by Kevin Johnson.
Satya Nadella, will be the senior vice president for the search, portals and advertising group. Mr. Nadella is on the engineering side of Microsoft, and will look after the technical side of Web search, advertising systems and related systems. He will also have responsibility for the programming of the MSN portal.
Bill Veghte, will be the senior vice president for online services and Windows, handling sales, marketing and product management both for Windows and online operations.
Brian McAndrews, the senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions group, will look after the strategy and marketing of Microsoft’s online activities jointly with Mr. Veghte and Mr. Nadella.
More news
Microsoft shuffle leads to many promotions
Microsoft made its leadership changes official on Thursday, promoting more than a dozen executives and confirming the departure or pending departure of three top executives.
As expected, Windows VP Mike Sievert, online services senior VP Steven Berkowitz, and Windows Mobile head Pieter Knook are all leaving the company. Knook is heading to a new post at Vodafone, Sievert plans to start his own company, and Berkowitz will stay at Microsoft through August, as his duties transition to other executives.
Microsoft promoted several executives to fill the departures. Bill Veghte moves from VP to senior vice president and adds responsibility for the business strategy for Windows, Windows Live, MSN, and search. Satya Nadella gets a similar title bump and adds programming and engineering oversight for MSN to his search-related responsibilities. Collectively, Vegthe, Nadella and former Aquantive CEO Brian McAndrews will take over Berkowitz's duties.
Filling Knook's role is Andy Lees, who becomes senior vice president of the mobile communications business. The move represents Lees' first mobile-related duties during his long tenure at Microsoft.
Brad Brooks, formerly a general manager in the Windows unit, will take over as head of consumer marketing for the operating system, assuming Sievert's responsibilities.
Roz Ho, former head of Microsoft's Mac unit, will become a corporate VP and lead the Danger team once Microsoft completes that acquisition. Microsoft's press release also notes that Ho will continue in her stealth role leading "various consumer-focused premium mobile offerings in mobile communications."
A Microsoft representative would not offer any further details, but ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley notes that Ho has been leading a project known as Pink and Purple aimed at bringing Zune experiences over to Windows Mobile.
Steve Guggenheimer, who had been in application platform marketing, becomes a corporate VP, heading Microsoft's relationships with computer makers.
Developer unit head S. Somasegar and Office executives Chris Capossela, Kurt DelBene, and Antoine Leblond each become senior VPs, but maintain largely their same responsibilities, with four other executives adding the VP title.
The announcements were part of a broad management reorganization involving seven new senior vice presidents and seven new corporate vice presidents.
One of the more significant leadership changes was in the cellphone operations. Andy Lees was named senior vice president for mobile communications operations. Mr. Lees, who had overseen the server business, succeeds Pieter Knook, who, the company said, “made the decision to leave Microsoft to pursue other opportunities.”
Microsoft has been paying more attention to its cellphone business following the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android software operating system. In only a few months of the iPhone’s release, according to Canalys, a market research firm, Apple gained 28 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, a greater share of the market than the cellphones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, leads the category that has been dominated by phones made for business users.
Microsoft is showing more interest in the consumer market. This week it announced it was buying Danger, the maker of the popular Sidekick cellphone.
Analysts said that Microsoft was moving to confront a growing competitive threat from a range of companies that have positioned themselves to offer Web-based alternatives to Microsoft’s core office-productivity applications. The other major change was the replacement of Steve Berkowitz, the current senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services group. Mr. Berkowitz, the former chief executive of the online site Ask Jeeves, was hired with great fanfare in April 2006 to help revive Microsoft’s search and portal operations. Microsoft has been unable to make a dent in Google’s growing dominance in search and search advertising. Mr. Berkowitz will leave the company this August, the company said.
Responsibility for online operation was split among three executives who will work in the combined organization that handles both Internet activities and the Windows operating system, which is run by Kevin Johnson.
Satya Nadella, will be the senior vice president for the search, portals and advertising group. Mr. Nadella is on the engineering side of Microsoft, and will look after the technical side of Web search, advertising systems and related systems. He will also have responsibility for the programming of the MSN portal.
Bill Veghte, will be the senior vice president for online services and Windows, handling sales, marketing and product management both for Windows and online operations.
Brian McAndrews, the senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions group, will look after the strategy and marketing of Microsoft’s online activities jointly with Mr. Veghte and Mr. Nadella.
More news
Microsoft shuffle leads to many promotions
Microsoft made its leadership changes official on Thursday, promoting more than a dozen executives and confirming the departure or pending departure of three top executives.
As expected, Windows VP Mike Sievert, online services senior VP Steven Berkowitz, and Windows Mobile head Pieter Knook are all leaving the company. Knook is heading to a new post at Vodafone, Sievert plans to start his own company, and Berkowitz will stay at Microsoft through August, as his duties transition to other executives.
Microsoft promoted several executives to fill the departures. Bill Veghte moves from VP to senior vice president and adds responsibility for the business strategy for Windows, Windows Live, MSN, and search. Satya Nadella gets a similar title bump and adds programming and engineering oversight for MSN to his search-related responsibilities. Collectively, Vegthe, Nadella and former Aquantive CEO Brian McAndrews will take over Berkowitz's duties.
Filling Knook's role is Andy Lees, who becomes senior vice president of the mobile communications business. The move represents Lees' first mobile-related duties during his long tenure at Microsoft.
Brad Brooks, formerly a general manager in the Windows unit, will take over as head of consumer marketing for the operating system, assuming Sievert's responsibilities.
Roz Ho, former head of Microsoft's Mac unit, will become a corporate VP and lead the Danger team once Microsoft completes that acquisition. Microsoft's press release also notes that Ho will continue in her stealth role leading "various consumer-focused premium mobile offerings in mobile communications."
A Microsoft representative would not offer any further details, but ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley notes that Ho has been leading a project known as Pink and Purple aimed at bringing Zune experiences over to Windows Mobile.
Steve Guggenheimer, who had been in application platform marketing, becomes a corporate VP, heading Microsoft's relationships with computer makers.
Developer unit head S. Somasegar and Office executives Chris Capossela, Kurt DelBene, and Antoine Leblond each become senior VPs, but maintain largely their same responsibilities, with four other executives adding the VP title.
Market research: PlayStation 3 is going the top-selling next-gen console by 2011
For more than a year, the whole world has seen Sony's PlayStation 3 get its rear handed to it by Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
But if a three-year forecast from market research firm iSuppli is to be believed, the PS3 could out pace both the Wii and the Xbox by 2011.
Since its release in November 2006, the Wii has been the most successful of the next-gen consoles, far eclipsing Microsoft's Xbox 360 and leaving the PS3 in the dust.
But because the Xbox had a full year's head start on both the Wii or the PS3, it still had the overall sales lead.
Now, however, that lead looks imperiled, and according to a report in Information Week, the Wii could soon become the overall sales leader among the three consoles.
The article cited market research firm iSuppli as determining that by the end of 2008, the Wii will have sold a total of 30.2 million units, 17.5 percent higher than the projected 25.7 million Xboxes Microsoft will have sold.
But the really interesting news in the iSuppli report is a forecast that by 2011, the PS3 could be the top console. The research firm predicted that by the end of 2011, the PS3 could have sold 38.4 million units, while the Wii might be in second place at 37.7 million.
Of course, three-year forecasts have about as much chance of being right in electronics as predictions of who will win the World Series in three years.
Still, for anyone to put their name to a forecast that the PS3 could emerge from its doldrums is actually quite noteworthy. And for me, it's a hint of future validation since in the fall of 2006, I wrote a story suggesting that the PS3 would be the eventual winner of the next-gen console wars.
Shortly thereafter, of course, that suggestion made me look rather foolish when Sony's much-publicized problems with production and overpricing got the PS3 off to an extremely poor start. And with the surprise success of the Wii, my prediction looked even more foolish, even though Sony said from day one that it views its consoles as 10-year plays.
And of course, iSuppli's forecast could be just as far off base as mine was. But the fact that it is willing to make such a prognostication here, in 2008, is gratifying. Even if it's a bit mystifying.
From news:
Sales of PlayStation 3 top Xbox 360 in January
Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game console topped Microsoft's Xbox 360 in U.S. unit sales for the first time in January, but the Redmond company said its sales were hurt by supply shortages.
The PlayStation 3 sold 269,000 units for the month, according to statistics released by the NPD Group market research firm. That was just behind Nintendo's Wii, which sold 274,000 units, NPD said. Microsoft sold 230,000 Xbox 360 consoles.
"We certainly believe that this is an anomaly," said Microsoft spokesman David Dennis of the Xbox 360's third-place finish.
The company said this week that higher-than-expected demand for Xbox 360 during the holidays caused subsequent shortages.
Sony, in a statement, pointed to progress in areas including movie studios' embrace of the Blu-ray next-generation DVD format, which the PS3 uses. Jack Tretton, Sony Computer Entertainment America chief executive, said that it's "shaping up to be a breakthrough year for us."
Sony's PlayStation 2 dominated the previous console generation, but the PS3 has struggled to find its footing.
Nintendo's popular and lower-priced Wii has experienced repeated shortages since its launch in November 2006. Redmond-based Nintendo of America said in a statement Thursday that demand for the Wii continues to outstrip supply. The company said sales last month were affected by its previous decision to shift some of January's hardware supplies into December, to boost availability over the holidays.
Microsoft's Dennis noted the company is "working to do everything we can to replenish the inventory."
The company noted that overall U.S. spending on Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories was $297 million for the month, compared with $244 million on Wii and $219 million on the PS3.
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