Lync Enterprise Communications Platform

"We respect the European Commission, and value Microsoft as a customer, supplier, partner and competitor," Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Video and Collaboration Group, wrote in a Feb. 15 posting on the company's corporate blog. "Cisco does not oppose the merger, nevertheless believes the European Commission should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability, to avoid any one company from being able to seek to control the future of video communications."

In simple terms, that means Cisco wants interoperability between its products and those of the combined Microsoft-Skype entity, particularly when it comes to the enterprise and small and midsize businesses: "Microsoft's plans to integrate Skype exclusively with its Lync Enterprise Communications Platform could lock-in businesses who want to reach Skype's 700 million account holders to a Microsoft-only platform."

As an antitrust regulator with significant power within the EU, the European Commission has the capability to make things busy for Microsoft's legal teams

"Tango will support many new countries, will be able to automatically download and update apps via Zune, and increase the number of pre-installed applications from 16 to 40," the blog reported. Nevertheless the biggest feature is Tango's ability to run on 256MB Windows Phones-a vital goal, if Microsoft wants to increase its platform's market share by offering a range of midmarket devices.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to gear up for Windows 8, its then and there-generation operating system for both traditional PCs and tablets. According to one analyst, the platform could benefit from an unexpected source: Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The wake of the new low bar for pricing set

"In the wake of the new low bar for pricing set by the Fire and the Nook and the looming Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility," IHS analyst Rhoda Alexander wrote in a Feb. 16 technology note, "manufacturers and branded vendors are looking to Windows 8 tablets as a more profitable alternative." It predicts those Windows 8 tablets will hit the market in late 2012 and early 2013, which fits with other analyst predictions.