Microsoft shakes his staff .

Keywords: Reorganization, U.S., MICROSOFT

The number one worldwide in software on Tuesday announced a new organization for its division into mobile phones, video game consoles and music players. Robbie Bach, the head of the business, leaving the group.

Mocrosoft cleans up. Tuesday evening, the Redmond giant has announced a change of management largely symbolic. Robbie Bach, 48, father of the Xbox, became boss of the whole entertainment business, which includes consoles, video games, game development studios, music, with its Zune portable media player, and mobile phones, was fired after twenty-two years of presence in the group. He pays the collapse of the market share of Microsoft's mobile phones and breathlessness in video games. Its functions will be taken live by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.
Apple and Google ache the Redmond company in consumer electronics products, particularly in mobile phones. A sign? The market capitalization of Apple (217000000000) flirts with Microsoft's (225 billion dollars). So much so that the San Francisco Chronicle even wondered if Steve Ballmer Monday was still the man for the job, despite his intimate knowledge of the company and its bond of friendship with Bill Gates, cofounder and chairman of the board of directors group. In addition, James Allard, the chief technology officer of Microsoft in charge of video games and mobile phones, will resign and be simple advise from Microsoft.

Natal Project:
In operating systems for mobile phone, where the group was launched in 2002, Microsoft has sold, in aggregate, less than Apple software, which proposed the first iPhone in June 2007. Last year, according to research firm Canalys, Apple has trounced Microsoft, with respectively 25.1 million and 14.7 million units. Earlier this year the situation has worsened. Google, through its operating system Android, launched eighteen months ago, has surpassed Microsoft in mobiles.
In the first quarter, the champion of the Internet holds 9.8% of the market for operating systems for smartphones, against 7.3% for the group in Redmond and 15.9% for Apple, according to Canalys. Under cover of anonymity because of partnerships with Microsoft, operators provide their Windows Mobile sales will continue to decline until year-end launch of a new variant of the operating system, Windows Mobile 7 .
The future operating system announced in February by Steve Ballmer is very promising. Meanwhile, manufacturers who use Windows Mobile, dominated by the Taiwanese HTC, complain that these phones are purchased almost exclusively by companies, while the market is growing among the general public. Companies are adopting mobile Windows because of its complementarity with the mail system for PC, Outlook.
In video games with its Xbox 360, Microsoft has scored points and ranks second in the world, between the Wii Nintendo and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) Sony. This result is very honorable. Especially since the project Natal, which will be detailed in June, will use speech and gesture to control the video game console. The control knob is removed. This progress augurs a simplification in the natural use of PCs.
The group of Redmond needs to boost its sales of consoles, particularly the United States, where he is prodding by Sony. In March, the U.S. market, PS3 sales have increased significantly (+44%) for the eighth consecutive month, while the Xbox 360 tentatively advanced (+2.5%), according to NPD. In addition, Microsoft has decided to launch an investigation last month on one of its subcontractors, in southern China, after being involved in a study by the National Labor Committee, which criticized the work very young people, minors, production controllers to the Xbox 360.
After the departure of Robbie Bach and degradation James Allard, the new strong man of the gaming division of Microsoft is Don Mattrick, former head of Elec tronic Arts Studios, which oversees the project promising Natal.