For weeks consumers have been waiting patiently to hear what Microsoft would be doing with Windows XP. Would they be keeping or discarding it? The CEO for Microsoft - Steve Ballmer - has finally reached a decision this week.
While stopping far short of announcing a major rethink over the venerable old OS’ June 30th death warrant, he certainly appears to have his hand hovering over the lever in preparation for a bit of handbrake turn action. “XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one,” he told Reuters yesterday. “If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.”
Microsoft has decided to discontinue the MSN Music Service that allows consumers to plays songs that they have purchased and downloaded onto their new music devices. “As of August 31st, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,” Microsoft said in an e-mail that was sent Tuesday to former MSN Music customers.
It looks like Microsoft is back under the microscope – but this time by Europe’s new antitrust investigators. The European Commission believes that the company may be violating monopoly laws by failing to make its products interoperable with competitors’ offerings and by illegally bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with the Windows operating system.