This week, we saw many major developments in the tech sector, from multiple companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), SAP (NYSE:SAP), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) and a few more. In this weekly roundup, we review some of the most important ones.
Microsoft
Microsoft made a very important announcement earlier this week, stating that it will be bringing Kinect support to Windows 8. It launched a beta version of the Kinect SDK for Windows 8. With Kinect, Windows 8 will support motion gestures for gaming and other applications. Microsoft expects to boost both Kinect and Windows 8 sales with this feature.
It also announced a couple of upgrades to the Xbox Live online gaming network. It has added a new Social section to Xbox Live as well as a new Video section with the entire Zune video catalog for movies and TV shows.
It was also revealed that Microsoft is now going after Huawei, one of the largest telecom equipment manufacturer, for a patent licensing deal covering its Android devices. Microsoft is one track to generate more than a billion dollars from Android patent licensing in the coming years.
Check out our complete analysis of Microsoft
SAP
SAP announced that it was focused on three key trends – mobile, big data and cloud computing – to drive sales growth in the coming years. It also launched a new version of the Sybase IQ database, which comes with advanced Hadoop integration and support for a MapReduce API. It is targeting the growing market for big data and analytics like Microsoft and Oracle. It also launched a new version of the Business One ERP (enterprise resource planning) software offering, which is targeted primarily at small and medium sized businesses.
Check out our complete analysis of SAP
Adobe
In a surprising move, Adobe announced that it would be ceasing all future development on Flash Player for new mobile devices, effectively abandoning it. Development tools for Flash are a part of the Creative Suite, which accounts for a major part of Adobe’s $35 Trefis price estimate, but we don’t expect any major impact to its revenues following this announcement.
It also announced that it would be laying off nearly 750 employees in Europe and North America, and restructuring its business to focus on the growing digital media and digital marketing space.
